Computer Forensics Foils RIAA Lawsuit

One of the most closely-watched copyright infringement lawsuits brought by the RIAA appears to be coming to a screeching halt, much to the music industry's delight. A judge ruled Monday that a defendant had willfully and intentionally destroyed evidence of his P2P activities after being notified of pending legal action by the RIAA. Furthermore, since it was done in bad faith, it "therefore warrants appropriate sanctions."

The order in Atlantic v. Howell was issued at the end of a pretrial conference held in an Arizona courtroom. Jeffery Howell, the defendant who represented himself throughout the case, was accused of copyright infringement for sharing music over the KaZaA P2P network. Howell denied the charges, saying that the music MediaSentry saw in his shared folder was for his own private use.

Howell won a major victory against the RIAA this past April, when a judge rejected the RIAA's cornerstone legal theory that simply making a file available on P2P network constituted copyright infringement. Judge Neil V. Wake denied the RIAA's motion for summary judgment, ruling that "a distribution must involve a 'sale or other transfer of ownership' or a 'rental, lease, or lending' of a copy of the work. The recording companies have not proved an actual distribution of 42 of the copyrighted sound recordings at issue, so their motion for summary judgement fails as to those recordings."

1st Amendment Allows Re-posting of Public Records

A federal judge has ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of Virginia privacy activist Betty Ostergren to publish the Social Security numbers of public officials on her website. She posted the numbers to protest the Virginia government's policy of posting public real estate records online that included people's Social Security numbers. The decision—and the associated publicity for Ostergren's website—may prompt Virginia politicians to hurry up and fix their own website.

For several years, Virginia has been making the real estate records available for a nominal fee from a commonwealth website. Ostergren, wanting to give public officials a taste of their own medicine, began reproducing the records of legislators and court clerks—Social Security numbers and all—on her website.

Bizarrely, the Virginia legislature reacted to public criticism of the Social Security fiasco in 2007 by mandating that all public real estate records be made available beginning in July 2008. It also mandated that clerks redact Social Security numbers within three years, but only if the legislature provided the funds required to do so—then failed to come up with the necessary funds. Instead, the legislature changed the law to prohibit private parties from distributing individuals' Social Security numbers even if they are simply reposting the very same records available from the government's own website. Ostergren viewed this last clause as censorship, and with the help of the Virginia ACLU, she sued to block its enforcement against her.

In his opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Payne wrote that the the Supreme Court has consistently barred governments from limiting re-publication of information already placed into the public record by the government itself. For example, in a 1975 case, the high court held that a journalist could not be prohibited from reporting the name of a rape victim he had obtained via public court documents.

Public Records For All?

In the city of Richland, it's apparent that access to public records is based less on a commitment to observing the letter and spirit of the state's Open Records Act and more on an unfortunate decision to create economic barriers to a free flow of public information.

In Richland, a copy of a police incident report now costs $20. The Madison and Rankin County Sheriff's departments charge $10 for incident reports.

Some other agencies charge less. Florence Police Department charges 50 cents a page for copies.

Richland Board of Aldermen last week signed off on a unified fee system for public records requests. That decision is another in a disturbing trend in government at all levels to price the public out of a free flow of public information to which the law already entitles them at cost.

Public officials, including Richland officials, say they are simply recovering taxpayer costs. Perhaps. But the effect is making public records inaccessible to the poor.

The state Open Records Act was meant to provide access to public records by all Mississippians, not just those with plenty of disposable income. In the vast majority of cases, reproduction of public records by government entities consists of little more than the operation of a copy machine by a city employee.

RETIRING COMMISSIONER SOUGHT INFORMATION ON FAILED LEGISLATION

Thurston County Commissioner Diane Oberquell sent a state agency one of the biggest public records requests ever filed, costing the agency an estimated $9,000 for 300 hours of staff time and about $500 for printing almost 10,000 pages of documents.
Oberquell, acting as a private citizen, filed the request Feb. 9. She asked the office of state Attorney General Rob McKenna for records, e-mails and other documents that mention a failed bill in the state Legislature that would have required county commissioners to tape their closed-door executive sessions. Oberquell testified Feb. 5 against the bill.

PI snooping into Sayles' e-mails to police chief

A Livermore-based private investigator has now submitted a California Public Records Act request to Lathrop City Hall seeking all e-mails between Mayor Kristy Sayles and Lathrop Police Chief Dolores Delgado from Aug. 1, 2007 to present.It covers the time when Delgado was away from work due to an injury.It marks the second time the private investigation firm of J.D. Maurer & Associates has submitted a public records request involving Sayles. On July 30, the PI submitted a public records request for Lathrop Police incident history and 911 tapes from Sayles' home address.The latest request asks for:• All e-mails between Sayles and Delgado from Aug. 1, 2007 to present.• All e-mail to kristysayles@aol.com from any city originating email address including but not limited to ksayles@ci.lathrop.ca.us from the time Sayles was a council member to the present.• All copies of telephone records for any telephone and/or cellular telephone, PDA, smart phone issued to Sayles.Sayles has indicated she does not have an issued city-owned cell phone.The original request asked for:• an incident history of anything that may have occurred at the mayor's home from Jan 1, 2005 and July 30, 2008.• a copy of all 911 tapes for any and all calls that occurred between June 1, 2008 and July 30, 2008 in reference to or that originated from the mayor's house.• a copy of the computer aided dispatch for any incident that occurred between June 1, 2008 and July 30, 2008 that was in reference to the mayor's home.Sayles said that she does recall making two 911 calls but that was last year around March when her child in her care was having seizures.Since the first request was made and Sayles was aware of someone poking into her personal life - court records involving divorces and civil matters that have nothing to do with her duties as an elected official for the City of Lathrop - a slick anonymous website has popped up listing personal information plus comments that aren't exactly flattering to Sayles. The website's address is www.kristysayles.comShopping into the personal background of a candidate that the opposition wants to take out is reminiscent of what Monte McCall did on behalf of San Joaquin County Supervisor Leroy Ornelas' opponents when he first ran for office. At that time, the Sheriff Baxter Dunn had his staff dig through old booking forms from the 1960s when Ornelas was a teen and was detained because he was in the company of another minor who was wanted at the time in connection with a crime.

Sensitive data to be handled with discretion

The newspaper has made California Public Records Act requests to Sutter and Yuba counties and the cities of Marysville and Yuba City for the names, titles and salaries of current county and city employees. This information is a matter of public record; the California Supreme Court ruled as such in August 2007.
Our intention behind the request: Build a public salaries database for the Appeal-Democrat Web site, which already offers a variety of popular databases of valuable information. Our most recent database on the "Info Center" at www.appeal-democrat.com details students' test scores.
Why a salaries database? Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent. And while some of the salary information already is available, for example, on Sutter and Yuba counties' Web sites, our goal is to make it easier for the public to access the information they have the right, by law, to possess. Essentially, we want the A-D database to provide a one-stop resource.
We do not believe a database that includes names would provide information that could lead to identity theft; the salaries database will not include data such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses or e-mail addresses. But perception is reality, and we respect the opinions of those public employees and officials who expressed their safety concerns to us.

New Orleans Police Not Releasing National Guard Records

The New Orleans Police Department said that it’s keeping updated numbers on where National Guard troops are helping out in the city. However, the department isn’t giving that information to anyone.
Since the guard arrived in the summer of 2006 -- the guard has assisted police officers on more than 6,000 arrests. Guard members do not make arrests.
"They report to the district commanders for the NOPD," said Lt. General Bennett J. Landrneau. He’s the man in charge of the guard in Louisiana.
WDSU filed an information request for guard statistics with the NOPD but the information was never provided.
Thursday, Police Superintendent Warren Riley appeared before the city council, who asked why the public records have not been provided.
"My questions are in the reporting of information on arrests and where they are located and the time of day, that's stuff the public has asked for that they cannot get from the NOPD?" said City Council Vice-President Arnie Fielkow.
Riley replied that he was unaware that the public was asking for the information and that the department could pull it up.
After Riley made that comment, the WDSU I-Team contacted the police department again. Once again requesting the information filed in the public records request from June.
At the time, the department told WDSU it could not provide the records on National Guard activity because the information couldn't be compiled.
But Thursday at City Hall, Riley made the following statement.
"It's not a problem for us -- the National Guard, they track their own arrests, we track all arrests, but we can get that info from the National Guard," Riley said.
Maj. Michael Kazmierzak said the guard works in support of the police department at the direction of the governor.
"Since the National Guard is only in support of law enforcement, the NOPD makes the actual arrest," Kazmierzak said.

State records need protection / Reform, awareness essential in handling public documents

When it comes to public records, it seems there are too many cooks in the kitchen and none of them are using the same recipe.
To deal with the continuing problem of hidden or missing records--many of which may be of historical significance--the government has set up a panel of experts and plans to allocate funds in next fiscal year's budget to bolster research into and administration of official documents and important records.
But even with extra funds, any move to protect these records will not be successful if the bureaucrats in charge of handling them are not better educated about their importance and the fact that they are public property.
Every year, close to 1.13 million files are compiled by the central government. The relevant bodies keep the files for a period stipulated by the Freedom of Information Law, and then classify them into one of three categories: those to be stored at the National Archives of Japan, those to be stored at the relevant ministry or agency office and those to be destroyed.
Documents deemed to have historical value are transferred to the National Archives. Yet few files make it that far, as each transfer requires an agreement between the office concerned and the archives.
The National Archives, however, does a poor job when compared to its foreign counterparts. To begin with, there are a mere 42 employees managing the National Archives, as compared to the 300 employed by South Korea's archives administration and the enormous staff of 2,500 at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The National Archives of Japan building in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo--the administration's main facility--claims a floor space of just 11,550 square meters, one-tenth the size of the National Archives Building in Washington, the main facility for a network that comprises 22 regional locations and a new 167,200-square-meter building.
In February, the government set up the panel of experts to come up with proposals for a sweeping overhaul of the system to manage important documents.
An interim report released in July by the panel calls for the integration of administrative functions--currently shared by government bodies such as the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry and the Cabinet Office--through the creation of a new agency in charge of public documents. The report also calls for a staff that would number in the triple digits. The new agency would have the final say on whether official documents should be stored in the National Archives or be discarded.
"The loss of important public documents is a loss for the state. So, in terms of national strategy, it's important for us to improve the administration of these documents. Politicians need to promote reform of the system and better awareness among bureaucrats."

University won't open Obama-related records now

The University of Illinois on Tuesday refused to release records relating to Barack Obama's service to a nonprofit group linked to former 1960s radical activist William Ayers.
The university's Chicago campus said the donor of the records that document the work of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge has not yet turned over ownership rights to the material.
The university is "aggressively pursuing" an agreement with the donor, and as soon as an agreement is finalized, the collection will be made accessible to the public, the university said in a one-paragraph statement.
There was no indication when an agreement will be worked out. The university did not identify the donor who it said was concerned that the release not invade personal privacy.
The Obama campaign said the senator does not have control over these records or the ability to release them, adding that it has made many documents related to Obama's life available to the public and that "we are pleased the university is pursuing an agreement that would make these records publicly available."
On Monday, the National Review magazine posted an online article saying that the institution had initially declared that the records were open to inspection, but that the university subsequently reversed its position.
On Tuesday, the university said that there had been a misunderstanding about the status of the collection.
During a primary debate in Philadelphia last October, Obama criticized rival Hillary Rodham Clinton over the release of presidential papers from the National Archives. Clinton said at the time that neither she nor husband Bill Clinton could do anything to speed the process of review at the Archives before papers from the Clinton era could become public.
Obama compared her record of public disclosure of records to that of the Bush administration, saying the country had "just gone through one of the most secretive administrations in our history."
In March, edited versions of the former first lady's appointment calendars were publicly released.