ALA President responds to House proposal to eliminate IMLS; American Library Association (ALA) News, 3/25/15

Jazzy Wright, American Library Association (ALA)News; ALA President responds to House proposal to eliminate IMLS:

"The budget resolution released this week by the U.S. House Budget Committee proposes to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the agency that administers federal funding support for more than 123,000 libraries in virtually every community in the nation. American Library Association (ALA) President Courtney Young today released the following statement in response:

"We are shocked and appalled that the U.S. House Budget Committee would call for the elimination of federal support for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the agency that administers federal funding to libraries. Our nation’s public libraries receive more than 1.5 billion in-person visitors(pdf) each year from students, parents, job-seekers and seniors alike. Through grant-making and federal funding, IMLS aids libraries in supporting lifelong learning and equitable access for all. Since its founding, IMLS has provided invaluable leadership and expert oversight to libraries and supported libraries in providing dynamic services to their patrons, such as workforce training, maker spaces, coding classes and entrepreneurship resources.

"ALA calls on every member of the Budget Committee, and of Congress, to recognize the enormous benefits that IMLS creates for libraries and constituents in their own communities. In Chairman Tom Price’s (R-GA) own district, for example, IMLS helped establish and now helps fund a hugely efficient and successful statewide library catalog that gives millions of Georgians and every library in the state access to everything in every other library’s collection. The State Librarian of Georgia estimates that replacing this statewide PINES network with individual systems would cost over $100 million over the next ten years alone."

Major publisher retracts 43 scientific papers amid wider fake peer-review scandal; Washington Post, 3/28/15

Fred Barbash, Washington Post; Major publisher retracts 43 scientific papers amid wider fake peer-review scandal:

"A major publisher of scholarly medical and science articles has retracted 43 papers because of “fabricated” peer reviews amid signs of a broader fake peer review racket affecting many more publications.

The publisher is BioMed Central, based in the United Kingdom, which puts out 277 peer-reviewed journals. A partial list of the retracted articles suggests most of them were written by scholars at universities in China, including China Medical University, Sichuan University, Shandong University and Jiaotong University Medical School. But Jigisha Patel, associate editorial director for research integrity at BioMed Central, said it’s not “a China problem. We get a lot of robust research of China. We see this as a broader problem of how scientists are judged.”

Meanwhile, the Committee on Publication Ethics, a multidisciplinary group that includes more than 9,000 journal editors, issued a statement suggesting a much broader potential problem. The committee, it said, “has become aware of systematic, inappropriate attempts to manipulate the peer review processes of several journals across different publishers.” Those journals are now reviewing manuscripts to determine how many may need to be retracted, it said."

Naspa’s Annual Conference Was Going Well. Then Yik Yak Showed Up; Chronicle of Higher Education, 3/24/15

Andy Thomason, Chronicle of Higher Education; Naspa’s Annual Conference Was Going Well. Then Yik Yak Showed Up:

"Student-affairs professionals flocked to New Orleans this week for the annual meeting of Naspa — Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. It’s one of the few times of the year they can get away from students and their annoying habits like, say, their use of the anonymous messaging app (and frequent powder keg of vulgarity) Yik Yak. Sounds like a great getaway, right?

Foolish student-affairs professionals. When will they learn? Yik Yak knows no borders.

The conference — which, again, is attended by people who have spent time mopping up Yik Yak messes — has been at least partially derailed by some colorful posts on the app. The activity was so pronounced that the association had to put out a statement responding to the posts..."

Poll Finds Little Support for Cuomo’s Policy on Purging State Emails; New York Times, 3/23/15

Thomas Kaplan, New York Times; Poll Finds Little Support for Cuomo’s Policy on Purging State Emails:

"New York State voters overwhelmingly disagree with the Cuomo administration’s policy of automatically deleting state workers’ emails after 90 days, according to a poll released Monday.

Eighty percent of voters said emails should be saved for a significantly longer period of time, according to the poll, which was conducted by Siena College. Only 16 percent supported the speedy email purges.

In Albany, the email policy has drawn loud criticism in recent weeks from government watchdog groups as well as some lawmakers, who have proposed legislation to stop the email purges. The policy has also reinforced Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s reputation for seeking to tightly control information, a defining trait of his administration."

Bill Would Limit Use of Student Data; New York Times, 3/22/15

Natasha Singer, New York Times; Bill Would Limit Use of Student Data:

"Is the digital revolution in the classroom giving the education technology industry carte blanche to exploit student data?

That was the question some teacher and parents groups have posed in their public responses to the news last week that Pearson, the education publisher, had been covertly monitoring social media sites to identify students who might have disclosed questions from its assessment tests.

In an effort to ease parent and teacher concerns, two congressmen are planning to introduce a bill on Monday that would place limits on how education technology companies can use information about kindergarten through 12th-grade students.

Called the Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act, the bill would prohibit companies that operate school services — like online homework portals, digital grade books for teachers or student email programs — from knowingly using or disclosing students’ personal information to tailor advertisements to them. It would also bar them from collecting or using student data to create marketing profiles."

India: 600 Expelled for Test Cheating; Associated Press via New York Times, 3/20/15

Associated Press via New York Times; India: 600 Expelled for Test Cheating:

"About 600 high school students in eastern India were expelled this week for cheating on pressure-packed 10th-grade examinations, education authorities said Friday. The scandal received widespread attention after Indian television footage showed parents and friends of students scaling the outer walls of school buildings to pass cheat sheets to students inside taking exams."

Online ‘Swatting’ Becomes a Hazard for Popular Video Gamers and Police Responders; New York Times, 3/20/15

Nick Wingfield, New York Times; Online ‘Swatting’ Becomes a Hazard for Popular Video Gamers and Police Responders:

"Swatting has become enough of a drain on local resources that the state’s attorney for Will County in Illinois, James W. Glasgow, recently proposed state legislation that would require defendants found guilty of swatting to pay back municipalities for calling on emergency responders. Swatting victims say they have been able to prevent repeated raids at their homes by asking the police to note in records available to emergency dispatchers that they are likely targets.

Tracking the culprits behind the pranks is difficult. While bomb scares and other hoaxes have been around for decades, making threats anonymously has never been so easy.

Swatters use text messages and online phone services like Skype to relay their threats, employing techniques to make themselves hard to trace. They obtain personal addresses for their victims through property records and other public databases, or by tricking businesses or customer service representatives at a victim’s Internet provider into revealing the information."

The case for quitting e-mail; Washington Post, 3/20/15

Anne Applebaum, Washington Post; The case for quitting e-mail:

"What to do? Increasingly, the answer — not just for government officials but for all of us — is going to be: Don’t use e-mail. Or at least don’t use e-mail for anything that you wouldn’t put on a postcard. And maybe don’t use e-mail for anything that you wouldn’t mind seeing published in a newspaper. Although we are used to thinking of e-mail as a “private” form of communication, it’s just become too easy to steal and will only become more so.

As a result, these methods have become readily available to all kinds of people, not just those who work for governments. The same is true of bugs and recording devices, many of which are now so cheap, small and portable that they don’t require special investment to install, let alone special espionage training. In London, the Sunday Mirror is on trial for hacking into celebrities’ telephones, repeatedly, over many years. If tabloid journalists can do it, anybody can. Recording a telephone conversation is easy, bugging a restaurant or a hotel room even easier. Public officials are just now waking up to the fact that they live in a world of total surveillance. It won’t be long before the rest of us are going to discover the same thing.

Technology may eventually provide solutions, perhaps in the form of user-friendly encrypted e-mail systems, perhaps in the form of new-generation sweepers that can detect the latest bugs. The legal system may eventually catch up, too. But until then, life for anyone who wants to be protected from any kind of prying — from snooping companies, from governments, from media, from ex-spouses — will have to move in the opposite direction and use less technology. If you don’t want to be overheard, it’s not enough anymore to stay away from Facebook: Don’t use e-mail, don’t talk on the phone and do speak in person, preferably outside. Above all, write letters. The postman might read it, but the government, your colleagues and the Sunday Mirror probably won’t."

Letter From the Editor: Illuminating Gay America; New York Times, 3/20/15

David Leonhardt, New York Times; Letter From the Editor: Illuminating Gay America:

"Last year, we began looking for a more detailed portrait of gay and lesbian America. The Census Bureau doesn’t have it, because it doesn’t ask about sexual orientation. And most national polls don’t have a large enough sample to say anything meaningful on a local level. But Gallup itself surveys thousands and thousands of people every month, and it ultimately told us that it was planning to release data about sexual orientation and metropolitan areas. Claire Cain Miller and I have an article about that data.

The new data is not the last word on gay America, because it doesn’t get any more detailed than metropolitan areas and covers only the 50 largest ones. But it’s the most detailed statistical portrait that’s yet to be released. (Previous work has tended to cover only same-sex couples.)...

Eventually, I expect that the Census Bureau will solve this data problem. As Americans become more accepting of gays and lesbians, sexual orientation seems likely to join race, income and other subjects included on the census. But that can’t happen until 2020 — the date of the next decennial census — at the earliest. Until then, we’ll have to rely on other sources of data to understand the country’s full demographics."

The Metro Areas With the Largest, and Smallest, Gay Populations; New York Times, 3/20/15

David Leonhardt and Claire Cain Miller, New York Times; The Metro Areas With the Largest, and Smallest, Gay Populations:

"The Census Bureau asks Americans about subjects as varied as race, age, annual income and even their source of home heating. But there is one glaring demographic omission: The census does not ask people about their sexual orientation. As a result, there has long been a shroud of uncertainty around the geography of gay and lesbian Americans.

A new analysis of Gallup survey data offers the most detailed estimates yet about where people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender live."

Democrats Renew Push For Colleges To Establish Cyberbullying Policies That Cover LGBT Students; Huffington Post, 3/18/15

Tyler Kingkade, Huffington Post; Democrats Renew Push For Colleges To Establish Cyberbullying Policies That Cover LGBT Students:

"Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate's education committee, wants to require colleges to establish policies prohibiting cyberbullying and harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Murray, along with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), unveiled legislation Wednesday they say would help mitigate harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students by requiring universities to adopt policies banning students from using online communication to taunt their peers. The lawmakers point to the death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide in 2010 after being a victim of cyberbullying, as an example of what they hope to prevent.

The Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act of 2015 would force colleges taking federal money -- which is nearly all of them -- to establish policies that prohibit harassment based on actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion. The bill would also require schools to have policies banning cyberbullying, which is defined as any harassment taking place through electronic or mobile communication services.

Nearly one in five college students are victims of cyberbullying, according to a 2014 study published by SAGE Publications. One in four LGBT students -- and one-third of transgender students -- face harassment in college, a 2010 survey by the advocacy group Campus Pride found."

Monica Lewinsky Is Back, but This Time It’s on Her Terms; New York Times, 3/19/15

Jessica Bennett, New York Times; Monica Lewinsky Is Back, but This Time It’s on Her Terms:

"Recently, she took part in an anti-bullying workshop at the Horace Mann School, and joined a feminist networking group. (“I consider myself a feminist with a lowercase ‘f,’ ” she told me. “I believe in equality. But I think I’m drawn to the issues more than the movement.”)

Perhaps most interestingly, in October, onstage at a Forbes conference, she spoke out for the first time about the digital harassment (or cyberbullying) that has affected everyone from female bloggers to Jennifer Lawrence to ... her: “I lost my reputation. I was publicly identified as someone I didn’t recognize. And I lost my sense of self,” she told the crowd."

Bonuses unearned: Awards to dishonest VA workers must be retrieved; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/17/15

Editorial Board, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Bonuses unearned: Awards to dishonest VA workers must be retrieved:

"Some Department of Veterans Affairs employees got bonuses by manipulating reports so they would qualify for the extra pay. Now that the truth is out, who thinks those people should get to keep the money? Would anyone but those workers answer “yes”?

Not likely. But in the lumbering bureaucracy that is the VA, it will take an act of Congress to get the money back. Fortunately, there is support in the House and Senate for retrieving the taxpayer dollars that the workers acquired by being dishonest.

The House recently passed a measure that would authorize VA Secretary Robert McDonald to rescind bonuses and recoup payments from employees who contributed to poor veteran care. A measure in the Senate has a similar goal, but it is more narrow and would apply only to employees in the scandal involving waiting lists for medical appointments."

U.S. Sets New Record For Denying, Censoring Government Files; Associated Press via Huffington Post, 3/18/15

Associated Press via Huffington Post; U.S. Sets New Record For Denying, Censoring Government Files:

"The Obama administration set a new record again for more often than ever censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find documents, and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.

It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged."

Pitt, CMU and UPMC hope to remake health care via new big data alliance; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/16/15

Bill Toland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pitt, CMU and UPMC hope to remake health care via new big data alliance:

"Pittsburgh is making a big bet on big data.

UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University on Monday announced the formation of the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance to “revolutionize health care and wellness” by using data to detect potential outbreaks as well as create health care innovations that will spawn spinoff companies...

The universities and UPMC acknowledged that security of personal health information is a paramount concern. For research purposes, clinical data is usually scrubbed of personal identifiers, but when devices are gathering and sending data from smartphones and other wearable technologies, the potential for a breach is heightened."

What’s Wrong With the ‘Blurred Lines’ Copyright Ruling; New York Times, 3/11/15

Jon Caramanica, New York Times; What’s Wrong With the ‘Blurred Lines’ Copyright Ruling:

"Besides, in an age in which popular music is incredibly diverse, with more sonic references, instruments and digital trickery available than ever, using sheet music as a measure of a song’s originality is a weak tactic, and possibly an irresponsible one. The “Blurred Lines” verdict is a victory for an outmoded law, but also an outmoded way of thinking about music.

There are untold things that static sheet music can’t capture: tone, feel and intensity or texture, all of which are as important to modern songwriting as the notes, and probably more so. Relying on the sheet music exposes a generational bias, too — implicit in the premise of the case is that Mr. Gaye’s version of songwriting is somehow more serious than what Mr. Williams does, since it is the one that the law is designed to protect.

There is, it should be said, a similarity in the bass lines of the two songs, and perhaps, more broadly, in their shared lite-funk feel. And it’s likely that Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams didn’t help their case by contending in interviews around the song’s release — including one in The New York Times — the psychic and literal debts they owed Mr. Gaye, and specifically “Got to Give It Up.” (Mr. Thicke testified, though, that he had barely any input in the writing of the song, a different explanation from what he gave the news media.) Often in the credits that come with an album, the phrase “contains an interpolation of” will appear. That generally means the song borrows from something else, but in a way that’s less than an actual sample or a heavily repurposed lyric or melody. It can feel like a legally codified version of a good-will gesture — certainly “Blurred Lines” might have benefited from such a designation up front."

Expulsion of Two Oklahoma Students Over Video Leads to Free Speech Debate; New York Times, 3/11/15

Manny Fernandez and Eric Eckholm, New York Times; Expulsion of Two Oklahoma Students Over Video Leads to Free Speech Debate:

"The University of Oklahoma’s decision to expel two fraternity members who led a racist chant on a bus provoked criticism Wednesday from several legal experts who said that the students’ words, however odious, were protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech...

Eugene Volokh, a constitutional law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, and prominent legal blogger, wrote that “similar things could be said about a vast range of other speech,” including praise for Muslim groups like Hamas that call for destruction of Israel, which could make Jews uncomfortable, or calls by black students for violent resistance to white police officers, which white students could interpret as hostile.

A university spokesman said the students were told they could appeal to the university’s equal opportunity officer. On Wednesday, Mr. Boren said he was creating a vice president for diversity in his administration, a position planned before the controversy over the chant. The vice president will oversee all diversity programs, including admissions, officials said. Mr. Boren was in talks to fill the post with an African-American candidate."

Calls to End Quick Purge of New York State Workers’ Email; New York Times, 3/12/15

Thomas Kaplan, New York Times; Calls to End Quick Purge of New York State Workers’ Email:

"The legislators were annoyed. The state official testifying before them did not have many answers. And the subject of her appearance — the “multiyear transformation” of New York’s information technology system — had been pretty much cast aside.

Instead, the official, Maggie Miller, newly appointed as chief information officer, faced a barrage of questions on a newly delicate matter: Why had Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration put in place a policy of automatically deleting state workers’ emails after 90 days?

“All I can say is that I fully support the policy,” Ms. Miller told one lawmaker at the hearing on Feb. 26.

Another asked her whether “any other government, anywhere” had a comparable policy; she cited no government, nowhere. And she was also asked: Who came up with the idea in the first place?

“It was already in place, I’m afraid, so I don’t know,” she replied.

Frustrated at the meager explanation and alarmed at the prospect of a virtual incineration of records, some lawmakers are looking to rewrite state law to forbid the email purges. Government watchdog groups have denounced the purges as a threat to transparency and accountability in a capital that has seen more than its share of troubles."

No Classified Emails by Clinton? Some Experts Are Skeptical; New York Times, 3/11/15

Scott Shane, New York Times; No Classified Emails by Clinton? Some Experts Are Skeptical:

"“As a longtime critic of the government’s massive overclassification, I thought it was a refreshing touch that the secretary of state conducted all her email in unclassified form,” said Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University. He spoke with a hint of sarcasm — his nonprofit organization has battled the government for decades to overcome classification claims and try to make important official documents public.

Mrs. Clinton insisted that she kept classified information out of her email, as the law required. Storing classified information in a personal, nongovernment email account on a private computer server, like the one at Mrs. Clinton’s home, would be a violation of secrecy laws.

And relations with other countries are particularly subject to secrecy claims. “Foreign government information” — information received from another government with the expectation that it will be held in confidence — is an official category of classified information in secrecy regulations.

A former senior State Department official who served before the Obama administration said that while it was hard to be certain, it seemed unlikely that classified information could be kept out of the more than 30,000 emails that Mrs. Clinton’s staff identified as involving government business.

“I would assume that more than 50 percent of what the secretary of state dealt with was classified,” said the former official, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to seem ungracious to Mrs. Clinton. “Was every single email of the secretary of state completely unclassified? Maybe, but it’s hard to imagine.”

Steven Aftergood, who directs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said he suspected that if there had been no fuss and a researcher or journalist had sought all of Mrs. Clinton’s emails under the Freedom of Information Act, the answer might have been different."

Hillary Clinton Tries to Quell Controversy Over Private Email; New York Times, 3/10/15

Amy Chozick and Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times; Hillary Clinton Tries to Quell Controversy Over Private Email:

"“I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two,” she explained. She asked, in effect, that voters trust that she was disclosing more of them than she needed to — and even to credit her with an unusual degree of transparency.

Mrs. Clinton said she turned over some 30,490 emails to the State Department in December, nearly two years after leaving office. But she said she had deleted nearly 32,000 others.

Her confirmation that she and her aides had chosen which emails to make available to the State Department raised new concerns about Mrs. Clinton’s power to decide which records of her tenure as secretary would be available to congressional investigators, to journalists filing Freedom of Information Act requests, and to history."

Stricter Oversight Ordered for Animal Research at Nebraska Center; New York Times, 3/9/15

Michael Moss, New York Times; Stricter Oversight Ordered for Animal Research at Nebraska Center:

"A federal animal-research center in Nebraska will not be allowed to start any new experimental projects until it strengthens its procedures and internal oversight, the secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, said Monday.

The decision came as a report ordered by Mr. Vilsack found that an oversight panel at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, in Clay Center, Neb., “was not adequately fulfilling its intended role” of scrutinizing experiments to ensure that they minimized pain and suffering for the animals. The report, however, said that during a three-day visit to the center in February, an investigating committee found no evidence of animal mistreatment. “Without exception,” it said, “the panel observed health and well cared-for animals.”

The report was prompted by a Jan. 19 article in The New York Times that raised concerns about the treatment of farm animals at the center, a 50-year-old unit of the Agriculture Department that aids the meat industry by developing livestock that are more productive and profitable. Interviews and internal records revealed that experiments and everyday handling of animals at the center have often resulted in illness, pain and premature death, and that the center lacked the careful oversight that many universities and meat producers have exercised over their own research.

Since the article was published, several members of Congress from both parties have pushed a bill to extend the federal Animal Welfare Act to shield cows, pigs, sheep and other animals used for agricultural research at federal facilities like the Nebraska center. The law, enacted in 1966, excluded those animals, focusing largely on cats and dogs used in laboratory research. Some animal-rights groups have urged that the center be closed."

Stop Spying on Wikipedia Users; New York Times, 3/10/15

Jimmy Wales and Lila Tretikov, New York Times; Stop Spying on Wikipedia Users:

"TODAY, we’re filing a lawsuit against the National Security Agency to protect the rights of the 500 million people who use Wikipedia every month. We’re doing so because a fundamental pillar of democracy is at stake: the free exchange of knowledge and ideas.

Our lawsuit says that the N.S.A.’s mass surveillance of Internet traffic on American soil — often called “upstream” surveillance — violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects the right to privacy, as well as the First Amendment, which protects the freedoms of expression and association. We also argue that this agency activity exceeds the authority granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that Congress amended in 2008."

Associated Press Threatens Legal Action Over Request for Hillary Clinton Information; New York Times, 3/4/15

Ravi Somaiya, New York Times; Associated Press Threatens Legal Action Over Request for Hillary Clinton Information:

"The Associated Press said Wednesday that it was considering legal action over unfulfilled Freedom of Information Act requests for government documents covering Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.

In its requests, the AP asked for her full schedules and calendars and for details on the State Department’s decision to grant a special position to a longtime Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, among other documents. The oldest request, the news organization said, was made in March 2010.

“We believe it’s critically important that government officials and agencies be held accountable to the voters,” said AP’s general counsel, Karen Kaiser. “In this instance, we’ve exhausted our administrative remedies in pursuit of important documents and are considering legal action.”"

Youth Symphony Cancels Program That Quotes ‘Horst Wessel’ Song; New York Times, 3/4/15

Michael Cooper, New York Times; Youth Symphony Cancels Program That Quotes ‘Horst Wessel’ Song:

"Jonas Tarm had won the kind of opportunity most young composers can only dream of: the New York Youth Symphony had commissioned a piece from him and planned to play it this Sunday at Carnegie Hall. But the youth symphony pulled his piece this week after learning that it includes a musical quotation from the “Horst Wessel” song, the Nazi anthem.

Mr. Tarm, a 21-year-old junior at the New England Conservatory of Music, said that his nine-minute piece, which is about conflict, totalitarianism and nationalism, also incorporated the anthem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, with each one quoted for about 45 seconds. In a telephone interview he said that he was stunned by the symphony’s decision to pull the piece, which he described as an act of censorship...

The orchestra’s decision was criticized by the National Coalition Against Censorship.

“Some audience members may have painful memories associated with the official music of oppressive regimes, but that should not mean that any work that references this music must be silenced,” Svetlana Mintcheva, the coalition’s director of programs, said in a statement. “Attempts to sanitize contemporary art do not protect young people or survivors of oppressive regimes; they can only succeed in suppressing the voice and violating the vision of creative artists, as well as in impoverishing public conversation about important, though disturbing, issues.“"

Popular Yik Yak App Confers Anonymity and Delivers Abuse; New York Times, 3/8/15

Jonathan Mahler, New York Times; Popular Yik Yak App Confers Anonymity and Delivers Abuse:

"Eastern Michigan is one of a number of universities whose campus has been roiled by offensive “yaks.” Since the app’s introduction a little more than a year ago, it has been used to issue threats of mass violence on more than a dozen college campuses, including the University of North Carolina, Michigan State University and Penn State. Racist, homophobic and misogynist “yaks” have generated controversy at many more, among them Clemson, Emory, Colgate and the University of Texas. At Kenyon College, a “yakker” proposed a gang rape at the school’s women’s center...

“Yik Yak is the Wild West of anonymous social apps,” said Danielle Keats Citron, a law professor at University of Maryland and the author of “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace.” “It is being increasingly used by young people in a really intimidating and destructive way.”

Colleges are largely powerless to deal with the havoc Yik Yak is wreaking. The app’s privacy policy prevents schools from identifying users without a subpoena, court order or search warrant, or an emergency request from a law-enforcement official with a compelling claim of imminent harm. Schools can block access to Yik Yak on their Wi-Fi networks, but banning a popular social media network is controversial in its own right, arguably tantamount to curtailing freedom of speech. And as a practical matter, it doesn’t work anyway. Students can still use the app on their phones with their cell service."

What Happens When Mein Kampf's Copyright Expires?; New Republic, 3/6/15

Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, New Republic; What Happens When Mein Kampf's Copyright Expires? :

"Later this year, the official copyright for Mein Kampf expires—70 years after the demise of its author. Since 1945, the Bavarian State (which owns the copyright) has refused to allow anyone to publish the volume. But in expectation of the copyright’s expiration (and in the hope of getting a jump on neo-Nazis who may try to publish their own slanted versions of the text) the esteemed Munich and Berlin-based Institute for Contemporary History decided some years ago to publish its own, critically annotated version. The move has generated some opposition, with some arguing against the release of any new version; “Can you annotate the Devil?” one critic asks."

Best state: Delaware, where Internet is in the fast lane; Delaware Online, 3/7/15

Reid Wilson, Delaware Online; Best state: Delaware, where Internet is in the fast lane:

"Delaware, Washington and Connecticut have Internet connections that average more than 15 Mbps, Akamai’s threshold for what it calls “4K Readiness,” meaning they’re fast enough to stream ultra-high-definition video. Globally, just 12 percent of Internet connections met the 4K Readiness standard; in Delaware, 39 percent of connections did.

Delaware has invested heavily in improving broadband connections. The legislature passed a measure in 2013 to bulk up broadband service to schools, libraries and rural areas that were otherwise underserved by cable companies. New fiber-optic infrastructure runs the length of the state, from Wilmington to Georgetown, funded in part by the state’s economic development office...

By contrast, Alaska, Arkansas and Kentucky – three largely rural states where building Internet infrastructure is costly – are at the bottom of the rankings."

Hillary Clinton Used Personal Email at State Dept., Possibly Breaking Rules; New York Times, 3/2/15

Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times; Hillary Clinton Used Personal Email at State Dept., Possibly Breaking Rules:

"Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.

Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act."

Pennsylvania legislation could shield some of the largest public university salaries from disclosure; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/25/15

Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pennsylvania legislation could shield some of the largest public university salaries from disclosure:

"Senate legislation intended to require more public disclosure by Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities would, as currently written, enable those schools to shield from the public many of their largest employee salaries — figures they currently release.

Senate Bill 412, introduced this month by state Sen. John Blake, D-Lackawanna, is part of an ongoing effort to revamp Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law that has been working its way through the Legislature for two years.

Mr. Blake said his bill’s intent is to give the public greater insight into the workings of the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University and Temple and Lincoln universities, which receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year but are largely exempt from Right-to-Know requirements.

Indeed, his bill (explore below) would create free accessible online databases with extensive budgetary information, non-personal employee and enrollment data, and would compel the four universities to list vendor contracts above $5,000 and maintain a 20-year archive of minutes from school trustee meetings.

But in one key area of disclosure — individual salaries — the bill’s language appears to be at least a partial retreat."

Lawsuits Keep Alive Scandals Surrounding Ex-Governor; Associated Press via New York Times, 2/27/15

Associated Press via New York Times; Lawsuits Keep Alive Scandals Surrounding Ex-Governor:

"Oregon's former first lady, Cylvia Hayes — at the center of an ethics scandal that forced the resignation of Gov. John Kitzhaber — has launched a legal fight to keep her private emails out of the public eye.

The lawsuit came to light Thursday, the same day that Oracle Inc., the tech giant that built Oregon's botched health insurance exchange, filed a lawsuit against several of Kitzhaber's former campaign advisers. The company accuses Kitzhaber's advisers of orchestrating the abandonment of the Cover Oregon website to help his re-election effort. Oracle also served notice that it may sue Kitzhaber and his former chief of staff...

Hayes, who is engaged to marry the former Democratic governor, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against The Oregonian asking a judge to rule that she is not required to turn over her emails to the newspaper.

She's resisting an order from the state Department of Justice that says emails from her private email accounts that concern state business must be provided to The Oregonian, which requested them under the state's public records law. The Oregonian, based in Portland, is the state's largest newspaper."

Privacy Group Files F.T.C. Complaint Against Samsung’s Voice-Operated TVs; New York Times, 2/25/15

Nick Wingfield, New York Times; Privacy Group Files F.T.C. Complaint Against Samsung’s Voice-Operated TVs:

"The Electronic Privacy Information Center has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Samsung over what it says is the recording of private conversations in homes through the company’s television sets.

The privacy rights group filed a complaint with the commission on Tuesday accusing Samsung of violating federal laws with a technology that allows viewers to operate the company’s Internet-connected smart TVs with voice commands."

Computer fiasco: CMU must make amends on its false acceptances; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/19/15

Editorial Board, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Computer fiasco: CMU must make amends on its false acceptances:

"How does CMU recover from this? How does it ensure that it never happens again? An emailed acknowledgement of error just doesn’t do it.

If nothing else, the university should give the 800 applicants another round of scrutiny with an eye toward accepting some of them — presuming they would even enroll after this fiasco. Accepting 10 percent into the program — 80 — would at least make some amends.

Although other universities have made similar grievous errors — Fordham, Johns Hopkins, Vassar, Northwestern and Cambridge, to name a few — it does not excuse Carnegie Mellon’s screwup. Nothing less than the university’s integrity is on the line — the integrity of a computer science leader that committed a colossal computer error."

Prison Architecture and the Question of Ethics; New York Times, 2/16/15

Michael Kimmelman, New York Times; Prison Architecture and the Question of Ethics:

"Faced with lawsuits and a growing mountain of damning research, New York City officials decided last month to ban solitary confinement for prison inmates 21 and younger. Just a few weeks earlier, the American Institute of Architects rejected a petition to censure members who design solitary-confinement cells and death chambers.

“It’s just not something we want to determine as a collective,” Helene Combs Dreiling, the institute’s former president, told me. She said she put together a special panel that reviewed the plea. “Members with deeply embedded beliefs will avoid designing those building types and leave it to their colleagues,” Ms. Dreiling elaborated. “Architects self-select, depending on where they feel they can contribute best.”

What are the ethical boundaries for architecture? Architecture is one of the learned professions, like medicine or law. It requires a license, giving architects a monopoly over their practices, in return for a minimal promise that buildings won’t fall down."

Debating the Rules and Ethics of Digital Photojournalism; New York Times, 2/17/15

New York Times; Debating the Rules and Ethics of Digital Photojournalism:

"Significant questions have arisen after a large number of images were disqualified from this year’s World Press Photo competition because of excessive — and sometimes blatant — post-processing. After independent experts examined the images being considered for prizes in the final rounds, and presented their findings to the jury, 20 percent of the photos were disqualified by the judges. This was often because of significant addition or subtraction to the image content.

These disqualifications — almost three times more than in last year’s competition — have generated discussion about the standards in photojournalism for post processing and the alteration of images. Understandably, there is concern over the degree of manipulation in widely published images."

The Long Good Fight: Libraries at the heart of intellectual freedoms | Editorial; Library Journal, 2/17/15

Rebecca T. Miller, Library Journal; The Long Good Fight: Libraries at the heart of intellectual freedoms | Editorial:

"Librarians and libraries are essential to discourse about intellectual freedoms. Now we have more work to do in light of violent efforts to curtail such rights, perhaps most notably the January 7 attack on the offices of Paris’s weekly Charlie Hebdo. For me, these events brought our work to date into high relief but also intensified a sense of urgency about what librarians can do to defend a richer understanding of the value of freedom of inquiry and expression.

American Library Association (ALA) president Courtney Young’s statement on the attacks framed the library ethos: “Such attacks are counter to the values of access to information with diversity of views—and to the values of civic engagement, which encourages people to read and discuss these views without fear.”

Libraries, in an important sense, exist to help remove fear from our culture: fear of the other, fear of the unknown, and fear of the differences of opinion that make us human. They do not exist to remove those differences. Our libraries hold and foster access to countervailing opinions, information about worlds beyond our own, and insight into cultures we have never experienced, as well as awareness of people living right next door. They are full of words answered by words—sometimes divisive ones—that together shape our evolving way of life.

Librarians are often out front in this freedom fight, perhaps most noticeably when it comes to book challenges. I think of acts of censorship as existing on a continuum of sorts. Acts of terror sit at one extreme but are still related to nonviolent attempts to use leverage of some kind to force a limitation on what others can say or read. Libraries have a mandate to exercise the muscles that counter the censor’s impulse early and often."

Gunman Kills 1 in Attack on Free Speech Event in Denmark; Associated Press via New York Times, 2/14/15

Associated Press via New York Times; Gunman Kills 1 in Attack on Free Speech Event in Denmark:

"A gunman opened fire Saturday on a Copenhagen cultural center, killing one man in what authorities called a terror attack against a free speech event featuring an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.

The shooting, which also wounded three police officers, came a month after extremists killed 12 people at a satirical newspaper in Paris that had sparked Muslim outrage with its depictions of Muhammad...

Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who has faced numerous death threats for caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad, was one of the main speakers at Saturday's panel discussion, titled "Art, blasphemy and freedom of expression.""

Can We Strengthen our Fragile Public Domain?; Library Journal, 2/12/15

Kevin L. Smith, Library Journal; Can We Strengthen our Fragile Public Domain? :

"In fact, even in the United States there has been some recognition that the Sonny Bono extension has done more harm than good. In a 2013 paper called, apparently without irony, “The Next Great Copyright Act,” Registrar of Copyrights Maria Pallante acknowledges that the copyright term is very long and that its length “has consequences” and needs to be made “more functional” (see pages 336-7). Although she stops short of asking Congress to repeal the 20-year extension, she does suggest “offsets” to mitigate the harm that has been done. Pallante is a far cry from being a “copyleft” radical; like previous Registrars, she tends to favor the interests of big content industries. So her suggestion that the term of copyright be readjusted because it is too long is a remarkable acknowledgement of the problem we have created.

Public Domain Day is one more reminder that our copyright laws in the U.S. have tipped the balance of protection too far away from its public interest roots."

'Code for America' fellows aim to make Pittsburgh more transparent; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/13/15

Robert Zullo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; 'Code for America' fellows aim to make Pittsburgh more transparent:

"Contracts and campaign contributions often are the fuel that powers political machines, but Mr. Peduto said he wants the three Code for America fellows who will spend a year in Pittsburgh to help open up city purchasing to small businesses and others who have been historically shut out of the process and strip away “that whole machine.”

“For the taxpayers, they’re basically left in the dark they look at government with suspicion because they don’t really see how their money’s being spent,” Mr. Peduto said at the Thursday news conference. “What if we shed light on it so everyone could see how that money has an influence and then take away the influence by allowing more people to bid on contracts.”

Pittsburgh was one of eight government entities selected to receive 2015 fellows from the national nonprofit, which allows young technology professionals to spend a year working to make government services “simple, effective and easy to use,” a news release said.

“We’re going to create the model for cities all around this country and all around the world to follow,” Mr. Peduto said."

A Failed Trial in Africa Raises Questions About How to Test H.I.V. Drugs; New York Times, 2/4/15

Donald G. McNeil Jr., New York Times; A Failed Trial in Africa Raises Questions About How to Test H.I.V. Drugs:

"The surprising failure of a large clinical trial of H.I.V.-prevention methods in Africa — and the elaborate deceptions employed by the women in it — have opened an ethical debate about how to run such studies in poor countries and have already changed the design of some that are now underway."

Frauds: 17 Medical Journals Publish This Scientist’s Fake Medical Research; Higher Perspective, 1/15

Higher Perspective; Frauds: 17 Medical Journals Publish This Scientist’s Fake Medical Research:

"Mark Shrime, a Harvard scientist pursuing a PhD in health policy wanted to see just how easy it is to get medical research published in various medical journals. Every day he says he receives at least one request from an open-access medical journal asking to publish his research.

The catch? They only need $500 to publish it.

So Shrime decided to see how easy it would be to public a bogus article. So he made one up using www.randomtextgenerator.com. He titled the article “Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?” and wrote that the authors were Pinkerton A. LeBrain and Orson Welles. The articles subtitle was “The surgical and neoplastic role of cacao extract in breakfast cereals.”

Shrime submitted his bogus article to some 37 journals, and two weeks later, 17 journals had accepted it. Note: They haven’t published them yet, but say they’re ready to just as soon as Mr. Shrime sends them that $500."

A Discredited Vaccine Study’s Continuing Impact on Public Health; New York Times, 2/1/15

Clyde Haberman, New York Times; A Discredited Vaccine Study’s Continuing Impact on Public Health:

"To explore how matters reached this pass, Retro Report, a series of video documentaries studying major news stories of the past and their consequences, offers this special episode. It turns on a seminal moment in anti-vaccination resistance. This was an announcement in 1998 by a British doctor who said he had found a relationship between the M.M.R. vaccine — measles, mumps, rubella — and the onset of autism.

Typically, the M.M.R. shot is given to infants at about 12 months and again at age 5 or 6. This doctor, Andrew Wakefield, wrote that his study of 12 children showed that the three vaccines taken together could alter immune systems, causing intestinal woes that then reach, and damage, the brain. In fairly short order, his findings were widely rejected as — not to put too fine a point on it — bunk. Dozens of epidemiological studies found no merit to his work, which was based on a tiny sample. The British Medical Journal went so far as to call his research “fraudulent.” The British journal Lancet, which originally published Dr. Wakefield’s paper, retracted it. The British medical authorities stripped him of his license.

Nonetheless, despite his being held in disgrace, the vaccine-autism link has continued to be accepted on faith by some."

Alabama Judge Faces Ethics Complaint for Gay Marriage Letter; NBC News, 1/28/15

Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News; Alabama Judge Faces Ethics Complaint for Gay Marriage Letter:

"A civil rights group on Wednesday filed a judicial ethics complaint against Alabama's controversial Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roy Moore, saying his comments urging judges to disregard a recent ruling striking down the state's gay marriage ban were "encouraging lawlessness."

The Southern Poverty Law Center said it had lodged the complaint with the state's Judicial Inquiry Commission, which could recommend that Moore face ethics charges in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary."

French Arrests Raise Question: Is Free Speech for All?; Associated Press via New York Times, 1/25/15

Associated Press via New York Times; French Arrests Raise Question: Is Free Speech for All? :

"That has unleashed accusations of a double standard, in which free speech applies to those who mock Islam while Muslims are penalized for expressing their own provocative views. Many Muslims complain that France aggressively prosecutes anti-Semitic slurs, but that they are not protected from similar racist speech.

French police have arrested more than 70 people since the attacks for allegedly defending or glorifying terrorism. The most famous is comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, charged over a Facebook post saying "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly" — a merger of the names of magazine Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, the attacker who killed four hostages at the supermarket. The comic also has repeatedly been prosecuted for anti-Semitism.

Dieudonne later suggested he was being silenced by free-speech hypocrisy. "You consider me like Amedy Coulibaly when I am no different from Charlie," he wrote in an open letter to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Many countries have laws limiting free speech, and on paper most hate-speech rules do not discriminate against any particular faith or group."

California Bars Judges From Boy Scouts Membership; Associated Press via New York Times, 1/24/15

Associated Press via New York Times; California Bars Judges From Boy Scouts Membership:

"California's Supreme Court voted Friday to prohibit state judges from belonging to the Boy Scouts on grounds that the group discriminates against gays.

The court said its seven justices unanimously voted to heed a recommendation by its ethics advisory committee barring judges' affiliation with the organization.

In 1996 the state Supreme Court banned judges from belonging to groups that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, but made an exception for nonprofit youth organizations.

The Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on the Code of Judicial Ethics in February recommended eliminating the exception to enhance public confidence in the judiciary."

Former Atlanta Fire Chief, Fired Over Book Storm, Files Complaint; Reuters via New York Times, 1/23/15

Reuters via New York Times; Former Atlanta Fire Chief, Fired Over Book Storm, Files Complaint:

"Reed said earlier this month Cochran was not fired due to his religious beliefs, but rather because of questions that arose about his "judgment and ability to manage the department" in connection with the book.

Reed said the city has a clear policy that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation and that Cochran's published views could be a legal liability.

Cochran consulted the city's ethics officer but not the mayor before he published the book, Reed said."

Terrible new Pennsylvania law muzzles speech, threatens press freedom; Washington Post, 1/21/15

Radley Balko, Washington Post; Terrible new Pennsylvania law muzzles speech, threatens press freedom:

"Pennsylvania just passed an awful new law that bars convicts from publicly discussing their crimes if doing so could cause victims “a temporary or permanent state of mental anguish.” Journalist Christopher Moraff is part of a group that’s suing to have the law overturned. At the Daily Beast, he explains why striking down the law, which he calls the “Silencing Act,” is so important."

The Charlie Hebdo Massacre in Paris; New York Times, 1/7/15

Editorial Board, New York Times; The Charlie Hebdo Massacre in Paris:

"Just days after the 9/11 attacks, an editorial in the newspaper Le Monde declared: “We are all Americans.” In France, “Je suis Charlie” — “I am Charlie” — has gone viral as the words to show solidarity with the victims at Charlie Hebdo. This attack was an assault on freedom everywhere. On Wednesday, the American Embassy in Paris put that message on its social media accounts."

News organizations wrestle with whether to publish Charlie Hebdo cartoons after attack; Washington Post, 1/7/15

Paul Farhi, Washington Post; News organizations wrestle with whether to publish Charlie Hebdo cartoons after attack:

"Ever since a Danish newspaper drew death threats and incited protests by publishing cartoons satirizing the prophet Muhammad in 2005, American news organization have wrestled with a question: to publish or not to publish the offending, if clearly newsworthy, cartoons?

The issue came roaring back Wednesday with the attack on a satirical Paris publication that had republished the Danish cartoons and created its own in the face of violent threats from Muslim extremists. The attack by three gunmen on the publication, Charlie Hebdo, left 12 people dead, including its editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, who once defiantly posed with a copy of his magazine featuring a cartoon of an Orthodox Jewish man pushing Muhammad in a wheelchair."

American Apparel updates its ethics code after ousting Charney; Fortune, 1/6/15

John Kell, Fortune; American Apparel updates its ethics code after ousting Charney:

"American Apparel has updated its code of ethics less than a month after firing controversial CEO Dov Charney — a move that could help improve the apparel chain’s tattered reputation as it considers a possible sale, or a turnaround.

The updated policy wasn’t exactly a surprise: American Apparel APP -3.55% in a regulatory filing last month said it would replace its prior code of ethics by Jan. 1 (it appears it slightly missed that deadline). In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said the revised code was intended to “clarify, update, or enhance the descriptions of the standards of conduct that were expected of all directors, officers and employees of the company.”"

Chris Christie’s trip to Dallas on Jerry Jones’s dime raises ethics concerns; Washington Post, 1/6/15

Cindy Boren, Washington Post; Chris Christie’s trip to Dallas on Jerry Jones’s dime raises ethics concerns:

"The trip may comply with the letter of the law, but it’s still raising questions, especially given Christie’s George Washington Bridge scandal.

Jameson Doig, an emeritus Princeton University professor who wrote a book about the Port Authority, said Christie’s relationship and receiving of gifts from Jones “sends the wrong signal if Christie or any of his top aides appear to have a conflict of interest in their relationship to the Port Authority.”

“The governor ought to do all he can to avoid that conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict,” Doig, a member of a panel on overhauling the agency’s ethics rules and structure, told the Wall Street Journal.

The trip may have violated no laws, but it may prove to be a bigger blow to his image than just that orange sweater that became a social-media meme."