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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
--- http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-111801inform.story By ERIC LICHTBLAU, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON -- The document seemed innocuous enough: a survey of government data on reservoirs and dams on CD-ROM. But then came last month's federal directive to U.S. libraries: "Destroy the report." So a Syracuse University library clerk broke the disc into pieces, saving a single shard to prove that the deed was done. The unusual order from the Government Printing Office reflects one of the hidden casualties of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: the public's shrinking access to information that many once took for granted. Want to find out whether there are any hazardous waste sites near the local day-care center? What safety controls are in place at nuclear power plants? Or how many people are incarcerated in terrorist-related probes? Since Sept. 11, it has become much harder to get such information from the federal government, a growing number of states and public libraries as heightened concern about national security has often trumped the public's "right to know:" [...] --- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/bpihw/20011118/en/fcc_looks_into_abc_s_secret__1.html Sunday November 18 07:25 PM EST FCC looks into ABC's 'Secret' WASHINGTON (The Hollywood Reporter) --- ABC's airing of "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" is likely to cause the network more than a little discomfort as the federal government has received dozens of complaints that the G-string-laced show and its related promotions violate broadcast indecency rules. FCC (news - web sites) commissioner Michael Copps told reporters Friday that he has received 50 e-mails from different parts of the country complaining about the racy show and its promotions. One of the complaints was of a more personal nature -- Copps' 27-year-old daughter had a complaint about the show. "She saw it and was upset," Copps said. "She's a new mother, and when her child gets (to a) TV age, he should see wholesome programming." He said he was forwarding the complaints to the FCC's Enforcement Bureau and asking it to investigate whether it violated indecency regulations. [...] --- http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/11/20/privacy.reut/index.html SafeWeb shuts free anonymous Web service SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- An Internet privacy firm has closed an anonymous Web surfing service that had been partly funded by the CIA and intended to give Web users in countries such as China and Iran a way to circumvent censors, the company said Monday. Emeryville, California-based SafeWeb last week quietly shut down its service which allowed people to surf the Web anonymously for free, and is unlikely to restart it, spokeswoman Sandra Song said. [...] --- http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-cards14.story By Graham Rayman STAFF WRITER November 15, 2001, 5:27 PM EST Requiring national identification cards and upgrading security at what they described as the "totally unsupervised" area of private aviation, were two recommendations offered Thursday by a panel of current and former law enforcement officials. [...] --- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011119/tc/anthrax_internet_1.html U.S. Warns Bioterror Web Sites By DAVID HO, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is warning dozens of Web site operators to stop touting unproven treatments for anthrax, smallpox and other infectious agents that could be used for bioterrorism. The treatments offered included dietary supplements such as oregano oil and zinc mineral water, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday. [...] --- http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172263.html By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 19 Nov 2001, 5:43 AM CST Yahoo's message boards are erupting with the kind of free-flowing, impassioned discussions the Internet's creators always dreamed of, with postings about practically every aspect of the hunt for terrorists, the capture of Kabul and mysterious plane crashes. But what's also revealing is what is being deleted. Gone are some gloating messages that say America deserved the attacks. Gone are some links to extremist sites promoting a jihad, or holy war, against the Western world. Gone too is a sarcastic note posted by college student Usman Sheikh: "America succesfully [sic] attacks terrorists, pinpoint smart bombing," the note began, linking to pictures of bloody children who were hurt or killed as a result of the recent military raids. [...] --- http://www.satirewire.com/news/0111/aclu.shtml ACLU TAKES OVER TERROR INVESTIGATION, WILL FOCUS ATTENTION ON NO ONE IN PARTICULAR "We Must Ask Nebraskans, Not Just Middle Easterners, What They Know" Washington, D.C. (SatireWire.com) -- Sensitive to accusations of profiling specific groups, the Justice Department today announced that the American Civil Liberties Union has taken over the lead role in the terrorism investigation, a shift in strategy that frees up the government to conduct a less prejudicial, more inclusive probe that should take, roughly, forever. "Instead of un-Constitutionally targeting specific groups, our investigation will expand the pool of interviews by more fairly including people of every ethnicity, every religion, every gender, and every sexual persuasion," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Right now, we are interviewing Caucasian farmers in Iowa, legally blind Wal-Mart employees in California, and gay Latino package store customers in Florida to see if they had contact with, or were involved with, those from the Middle East who carried out these attacks." [...] --- Hi Declan. If you choose to disseminate this information, please remove all attribution to me and keep it anonymous. Under the onerous and archaic contempt of court laws in Singapore, I have just committed contempt. Thanks. --- Forward Message --- (Pardon the bad formatting...) This is outrageous. In yesterday's Sunday Times (18 November 2001), there was a story entitled "Man allegedly 'encouraged law-breaking on Web'". (http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,84976- 1006120740,00.html?) Robert Ho was accused of attempting to incite violence or disobedience to the law which is likely to lead to a breach of peace, by posting an article entitled "Break The Law And Get Away With It, Like PAP" (http://groups.google.com/groups? q=soc.culture.singapore+break+the+law&hl=en&rnum=2&selm=c443dfe.0110190220.221cc 721%40posting.google.com), which allegedly encouraged people to gatecrash polling stations without authority on Polling Day, thereby breaking the law. Read the articles and decide whether he did incite people to break the law. Because if any judge finds that he did, then by definition 4 of Singapore's political leaders have also broken the law. --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. 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