Berkman Buzz: July 8, 2011
A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations
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What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below.
* Citizen Media Law Project on Vermont's amendment to its open records law.
* William McGeveran considers individual privacy and election law.
* David Weinberger is reading Tolstoy's essay on Shakespeare.
* Peter Suber breaks down the open access and copyright situation.
* OpenNet Initiative watches Australia turn on Internet filtering.
* Weekly Global Voices: "Togo: Fragile Truce Emerges After Five Weeks of Student Protests"
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The full buzz.
"That's why Vermont gets a gold star for its amendment to its open records law enforcement, in §319 of the Vermont Statutes, that requires that the public agency pay your attorneys fees if you "substantially prevail" in your case. The language in the statute mirrors that of the federal Freedom of Information Act and seems to operate similarly (though the statute has yet to be interpreted by a Vermont court). That suggests that if the court finds that most of your requests should have been answered, 1) you get those records and 2) your attorney gets paid."
From Brittany Griffin Smith's blog post for CMLP, Vermont Gives its Open Records Law Teeth
"I’ve been thinking and writing again about the topic of my very first full law review article: the role of 'sunshine' in our election system and the way it can compromise individual privacy. In the internet era, personal convictions and associations may be burned by too much sunshine. Of course, the public deserves to know about the big donors who effectively fund political campaigns. But knowing the identity of ordinary people who write small checks, sign petitions, or cast ballots doesn’t help inform voters, and it can squelch participation in politics -- especially by those with unpopular views, and those who want or need to maintain an apolitical public persona."
From William McGeveran's blog post Sunshine, Elections, and Privacy (Again)
"Tolstoy really really doesn’t like Shakespeare. His polemic is a wonderful literary rant, taking him on for putting undifferentiated characters into ridiculous plots, speaking language no one would ever actually say, and betraying Christian values and virtues. His opening recounting of King Lear shows just how absurd the plot is, and he moves on from there. So why is Shakespeare universally acclaimed? He thinks the Germans -- Goethe, in particular -- started it, and it became what would today call a meme..."
From David Weinberger's blog post Tolstoy and the Shakespeare meme
"From the beginning, OA struggled against the widespread assumption that it must violate copyright law. But this has been a struggle against perception, not reality. In fact, steering clear of infringement has always been easier than steering clear of this false assumption and the harm it has caused. The assumption has made some authors fear OA. It has made some institutions skittish about committing to OA. It has needlessly weakened some OA policies, for example, by creating loopholes for dissenting publishers. It has even been a dishonest pretext for bad legislation...Here's an attempt to clarify the situation in a dozen propositions."
From Peter Suber, in the SPARC Open Access Newsletter, Open access and copyright
"Last week, our friends over at Herdict reported on the proposed ISP-level censorship in Australia. The plan, released by Telstra and Optus (two major ISPs), aims to protect Australian citizens by blocking child pornography and child exploitation sites pulled from an Interpol blacklist. The list of sites (to be censored) was not released, although a government spokesperson claimed about 500 to 1000 sites would be included in the initial filter. Only a few days after the plan became public, Telstra was already wavering on whether to be a part of the implementation, mostly because of fears of Internet vigilantes. However, after the demise of LulzSecurity (a prominent 'hactivist' group), Telestra reaffirmed its commitment to the censorship regime."
From Kendra Albert's blog post for ONI, Australian Filtering Goes Live, 'Trivial' to Bypass
"West African country Togo's students' struggle for better education conditions is now in its fifth week and despite a recent truce, tensions remains high in the capital Lomé. A wind of appeasement seemed to blow on the demonstrations organized by the Mouvement pour l'Épanouissement des Étudiants Togolais - MEET (Movement for the Fulfillment of Togolese Students), when students managed to obtain from authorities the reinstatement...of the president of their association on June 30. Abou Seidou, a student of the University of Lomé, had been previously expelled for allegedly causing troubles on the campus."
From Julie Owono's blog post for Global Voices Online, Togo: Fragile Truce Emerges After Five Weeks of Student Protests
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Compiled by Seth Young.
The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects and sometimes from the Center's wider network.
Suggestions and feedback about the Buzz are always welcome and can be emailed to buzz@cyber.harvard.edu.