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ACM
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USACM Sponsors E-Voting
Workshop
USACM Joins Others in
Outlining Consensus SPAM Policies
ACM Internet Governance Committee White Paper Now Available
USACM Co-Chair Makes Cyber Security Recommendations to Congress
USACM Co-Chair Participates
in Review of Pentagon’s Internet Voting Project
Federal Court Rules
in Favor of Bloggers and “Fair Use”
New European Agency to Focus on Info Security
House and Senate Take
August Recess
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INTRODUCTION
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POLICY BRIEFS
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USACM Sponsors
E-Voting Workshop
On
USACM has been active in working to improve e-voting technology and educating policymakers regarding the importance of requiring a voter verifiable audit trail in electronic or computerized voting systems. In addition, individual members of USACM have played a leading role in educating national, state, and local public policymakers and election officials regarding the limitations of current e-voting technology.
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USACM Joins Others in
Outlining Consensus SPAM Policies
Recently, USACM joined a broad
coalition of groups in endorsing a SPAM policy letter sent to
members of Congress. Coordinated by the
The correspondence was sent in anticipation that Congress will consider a SPAM bill at some point in the coming year. To date, ten bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate, each offering federal legislative remedies to address the problem of unsolicited bulk e-mail, known as SPAM. The SPAM bills take differing approaches, which range from tighter rules on the form and format of unsolicited bulk e-mail to the application of civil and criminal penalties for those found to be in violation.
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ACM Internet Governance Committee White Paper Now Available
An ACM Internet Governance Committee (IGC) white paper entitled "Internet Governance: A View from the Trenches, Participation Needed for Successful Advocacy in the ICANN Arena" is now available on-line for viewing. Funding for the report was provided by a grant from the Ford Foundation's Media, Arts and Culture unit. Although the report was prepared earlier this year by IGC project director Kathryn Kleiman (in consultation with USACM and others), permission to make the report available on-line was only recently received. Ms. Kleiman's tenure as IGC project director has since expired and she has returned to private practice.
The white paper discusses the history, structure, and scope of the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers (ICANN). Of particular concern to the international computing community, the paper focuses on the ability of ICANN to create private rules and regulations that impact free speech and robust use of the Internet by noncommercial communities and individuals. Finally, the paper identifies barriers to participation in ICANN and outlines several ways in which the noncommercial community could improve its involvement and influence within the ICANN process.
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USACM Co-Chair Makes Cyber Security Recommendations to Congress
On
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USACM Co-Chair
Participates in Review of Pentagon’s Internet Voting Project
USACM Co-Chair Barbara Simons participated in a security review of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE). SERVE will conduct a live Internet voting experiment during the 2004 Primary and Presidential Elections in participating counties located in 10 states. The experiment will offer voter registration and voting via the Internet to U.S. military personnel and citizens living abroad who have access to a computer equipped with Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT or XP and Internet. Although SERVE is an experiment, all participants’ votes will be counted in both the primary and general elections.
The SERVE voting experiment was first conducted in the 2000 Presidential Election with a reported participation of 84 voters. It is estimated that 100,000 voters living abroad will participate in the 2004 Internet voting project. If this phase of the experiment is deemed a success by the Pentagon, the program could be expanded to include as many as 6 million voters.
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Federal Court Rules
in Favor of Bloggers and “Fair Use”
Two recent decisions issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals are of interest to web publishers and the computing community. In the case of Kelly vs. Arriba Soft, the court found that the display of miniature images, also known as thumbnails, used in searchable databases was allowed under the “fair use” provisions of copyright law. However, this ruling does not extend to the use of full sized images that are registered under federal copyright. The court’s decision allows the case to proceed to trial to determine the rights of copyright owners in controlling online access to full sized digital representations of their work.
In another recent ruling, Batzel v. Cremer, the court affirmed the First Amendment rights of Weblog publishers by extending to them protection from liability for the posted statements of others. The case involved a Weblog publisher who posted material generated by a third party. The ruling is consistent with prior Federal court decisions, which found that commercial vendors could not be held liable for information posted by a third party. The opinion states, “There is no reason inherent in the technological features of cyberspace why First Amendment and defamation law should apply differently than in the brick and mortar world.”
There are thirteen Circuit Courts of Appeal in the
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New European Agency to Focus on Info Security
The European Commission (EC) has
approved a resolution
to create new European Network and Information Security Agency (NISA) to assist
businesses and governments in
The European Parliament is
expected to approve the EC resolution in the coming months allowing NISA to
become operational by
To review a statement by the Business Software Alliance on NISA, see:
http://global.bsa.org/eupolicy/networksecurity/BSACommentsonENISA.pdf
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House and Senate
Adjourns for Summer Recess
At the close of July, Congress took its annual summer recess
for the month of August. The House and Senate
will return to
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