Clips October 2, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips October 2, 2002

ARTICLES

House Passes Bill to Combat Internet Gambling in the U.S.
New bills aim to protect consumers' use of digital media [Fair Use]
Firms Respond to White House Cybersecurity Call
DOD limits wireless use, will study vulnerabilities further
House lawmaker renews push for cybersecurity measures
Corner grocer joins growing biometric boom
Reality Check for Web Design [Security]
Library of Congress Taps the Grid
Lady Justice goes digital
Four EU members seek changes to data privacy law [Privacy]

*************************
New York Times
House Passes Bill to Combat Internet Gambling in the U.S.
By MATT RICHTEL

The House passed legislation yesterday that would prohibit Internet casinos 
from taking payments from Americans and would require banks to prevent the 
use of their credit cards for such gambling. The bill could also require 
Internet access providers to block entry to gambling Web sites.

But with the Congressional session nearing its end, it was far from clear 
whether the Senate would have the will or time to undertake similar 
legislation; should the Senate fail to act, the bill would die, and would 
have to be taken up by a new Congress to have a chance to become law.

Representative James A. Leach, Republican of Iowa, the author of the bill, 
said that Internet gambling is effectively already illegal under federal 
law and some state laws, but that no particular mechanism for enforcement 
exists. The new legislation, he said, would give law enforcement agencies 
and regulators tools to go after Internet casinos and financial 
institutions used by gamblers. The legislation, which passed by a voice 
vote, was the first such bill to pass in the House.

Under the law, operators of Internet casinos that accept bets from 
Americans could face up to five years in prison. However, virtually all  if 
not all  Internet casinos are overseas, putting their operators outside 
United States jurisdiction.

The legislation would also require banks and other financial institutions 
to prohibit use of their products, like credit cards or wire transfers, for 
Internet gambling. If they failed to comply, they could be subject to civil 
penalties from regulators.

About 60 percent of the $3.5 billion in revenue generated this year at 
Internet casinos came from bettors living in America, according to Bear, 
Stearns, the investment bank. But some Internet casinos are struggling to 
be paid because some United States banks are prohibiting use of their 
credit cards for Internet gambling, citing the financial risks from 
gamblers who do not pay their bills.

Mr. Leach said he did not know whether the Senate would undertake the bill 
or something similar. Matt Latimer, a spokesman for Senator Jon Kyl, 
Republican of Arizona, who has introduced similar legislation before, said 
he would try to attach a Senate version of the Leach bill to appropriate 
legislation. "I'm hopeful the Senate will be sympathetic," Mr. Leach said, 
"but time is short."
*************************
Mercury News
New bills aim to protect consumers' use of digital media
By Heather Fleming Phillips

WASHINGTON - The battle being waged in Washington over copyright in the 
digital age ratchets up a notch this week as new legislation is introduced 
aimed at clarifying consumer rights.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, plans today to introduce the ``Digital Choice 
and Freedom Act,'' Silicon Valley's response to a host of Hollywood-backed 
bills tilted in favor of copyright holders.

Lofgren's bill would ensure consumers can copy CDs, DVDs and other digital 
works for personal use, just as they now do with TV shows and audio tapes.

``This would not authorize someone taking their digital content and sharing 
it with a million of their best friends,'' Lofgren said in an interview 
Tuesday. Instead of creating new rights for consumers, she said, her bill 
would ensure that ``the rights they have in the analog world, they have in 
digital.''

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., plans to introduce similar legislation Thursday.

Lawmakers are wrapping up their business for the year within weeks, and 
neither measure has any chance of making it through Congress by then. 
Rather, the bills are aimed at staking out the technology industry's 
position in a festering dispute that could result in congressional action 
next year.

The bills also would amend a 1998 law, the Digital Millennium Copyright 
Act, that makes it a crime to circumvent technological protections built in 
to copyrighted works. Instead, consumers would be allowed to bypass the 
technology if the intent is to make a copy for personal use.

The legislation will vie with Hollywood-backed proposals, filed by Sen. 
Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., and Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Los Angeles, that 
would embed copy protection into PCs and an array of consumer devices, and 
allow the music and film industry to use aggressive anti-piracy 
technologies to thwart unauthorized downloading over the Internet.

``The laws that have passed in recent years have imbalanced the historical 
balance between owners of copyrighted works and users of copyrighted 
works,'' Boucher said in an interview Tuesday. ``The balance has been 
tilted dramatically in favor of owners at the expense of users.''

The film and music industries cast the debate in terms of piracy, arguing 
that copy protections are needed to ensure people don't download movies and 
music without compensation to the copyright holders.

The tech industry counters that free-flowing downloads of movies, music and 
other digital works could drive demand for broadband Internet connections, 
which it hopes would in turn spur innovation and increase sales of new 
technologies.

``If this bill were to pass, it would render ineffective, worthless and 
useless any protection measure we would have in place to protect a $100 
million movie,'' Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association 
of America, said of the Lofgren bill. ``You could download a million movies 
a day, and no penalty for it.''

Caught in the middle of the debate are consumers, whose ``fair use'' rights 
are in limbo. The courts have long upheld consumers' rights to make 
personal copies of songs, TV shows and other copyrighted works. But the 
move to digital raises the question of where to draw the line, when 
near-perfect copies can be easily shared over the Internet with large 
numbers of other users.

``Lofgren's bill aims to restore what Congress thought it was doing -- 
preserving fair use for people who have lawful rights to use stuff,'' said 
Paula Samuelson, a law professor at University of California-Berkeley's 
Boalt Hall School of Law. ``The Lofgren bill offers meaningful protections 
for a number of ordinary activities by consumers that should be lawful 
under copyright law but about which the law is presently ambiguous.''
***************************
Associated Press
White House Discusses Missing Kids
Wed Oct 2, 2:16 AM ET
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - With the parents of still-missing Elizabeth Smart looking 
on, President Bush ( news - web sites) was adding some federal muscle to 
the nation's patchwork of Amber Alert systems that speed information about 
abducted children to the public.



While headlining the White House Conference on Missing, Exploited and 
Runaway Children on Wednesday, Bush was to direct Justice Department ( news 
- web sites) officials to recommend a national standard for the 
rapid-response electronic notifications.

The idea is to limit the alerts to "rare instances of serious child 
abductions" and ensure their effectiveness is not undermined by overuse, 
according to a White House fact sheet distributed in advance.

The president also was announcing the establishment of an Amber Alert 
coordinator at Justice, tasked with increasing cooperation among state and 
local plans and disbursing $10 million in federal money for training and 
equipment upgrades.

Activists have sought to expand the use of the alerts, developed after the 
1996 kidnapping and murder of 9-year Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas, 
and now in use in more than a dozen states. The Senate approved a bill in 
September that would provide $25 million to help create a national network; 
similar legislation is moving through the House.

Thirty-two children have been found as a result of an Amber Alert, in which 
law enforcement agencies distribute photos and other information about 
missing children and their abductors to television and radio stations via 
the Emergency Alert System created during the Cold War. Some states are 
also flashing alerts to drivers on roadside emergency signs.

A series of high-profile child abductions  Samantha Runnion and Danielle 
van Dam in California, Cassandra Williamson in Missouri and Smart  have 
filled the headlines this year and terrified parents. Though the other 
girls were found slain, Elizabeth Smart remains missing, her kidnapping 
unsolved.

Elizabeth was taken from her Salt Lake City bedroom in the early morning of 
June 5. Her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, was the only witness and 
told police a man with a gun took her sister.

But despite the attention to recent cases, experts say abductions by 
strangers  the most dangerous type  remain rare. The National Center for 
Missing and Exploited Children estimates the total number of cases annually 
at 100 now, down from 200 to 300 in the 1980s. However, the Justice 
Department estimates that about 40 percent of these children are killed.

Overall, about 800,000 children are reported missing to police nationwide 
each year, most runaways or children taken by a parent or other family 
member, the Justice Department said.

Other parents of abducted children were expected to be among the 600 people 
attending the conference along with law enforcement officials and citizen 
experts.

The daylong event at the Ronald Reagan ( news - web sites) Building near 
the White House was also to focus on youth homelessness, sex trafficking of 
children, and child pornography, with panels on prevention tools that work 
and tips for parents and police.

On Tuesday, America Online, the nation's largest Internet service, 
announced it would begin transmitting Amber Alerts onto the screens of 
computers, pagers and cell phones of more than 26 million subscribers in 
dozens of states and cities.

Beginning in early November, warnings will go to AOL users in those areas 
who request to receive them on their computer desktop, cell phone or pager. 
All but one of the existing Amber Alert systems are participating with AOL.

___

On the Net:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: 
http://www.missingkids.com/

America Online: http://www.aol.com
**************************
Government Computer News
NARA issues e-mail archiving guide

By Jason Miller
GCN Staff

The National Archives and Records Administration yesterday released a guide 
detailing how agencies can provide NARA with e-mail and message attachments 
for archiving as records.

Agencies now can use a standard markup language or the e-mail program's 
native format. Previously, NARA required that agencies use only the ASCII 
text format.

The guidance is the first of at least three policy statements NARA expects 
to issue for its E-Records Management, one of the Office of Management and 
Budget's Quicksilver initiatives.

By Dec. 31, NARA will issue guidelines for submitting image scans of 
documents for archiving and by March 31 a policy for Adobe Portable 
Document Format files, said Nancy Allard, a NARA project manager.

The e-mail guidance instructs agencies to separately document each e-mail 
file, identifying the e-mail application, operating system, total number of 
messages, total number of attachments, a list of message delimiters and 
definitions, the structure used for each e-mail item in the file and the 
arrangement of records.

NARA is requiring agencies to ftp their e-mail files or send them on Type 
IV digital tape.

For a copy of the guidance, go to 
www.archives.gov/records_management/initiatives/email_attachments.html.
******************************
News.com
Netscape loses privacy dispute


By Lisa M. Bowman
Staff Writer CNET News.com
October 1, 2002, 5:03 PM PT


Netscape Communications customers suing the company for privacy invasion 
are not bound by an end-user license agreement forcing them into 
arbitration, a federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday.
At least three groups of Netscape users have sued the company in recent 
years, alleging that the AOL Time Warner unit's SmartDownload software 
invaded people's privacy and violated laws prohibiting electronic 
surveillance by sending their personal information back to the company. AOL 
shuttered the tracking feature soon after it was sued.

But AOL also argued that plaintiffs could not pursue their complaints in 
the courts because they were obligated to comply with an electronic 
agreement to resolve disputes via arbitration instead.



However, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled 
against AOL on the end-user license issue, saying people who obtained 
SmartDownload had not received reasonable notice of the terms of the 
agreement, which in most cases were presented to them on the Web page below 
the download button. The ruling should clear the way for the privacy suits 
to go forward. In affirming a lower court decision, the judges also said 
that the agreement, which was designed to cover Communicator, did not also 
apply to the SmartDownload plug-in.

"A reasonably prudent Internet user in circumstances such as these would 
not have known or learned of the existence of the licensing terms before 
responding to defendants' invitation to download the free software," the 
judges wrote.

Monday's decision could undermine the enforcement of online pacts, 
sometimes known as click-wrap licenses, and could lead companies to rethink 
the use of agreements that customers are not required to actively click on.

The ruling bucks a trend in which courts have generally upheld such 
agreements. However, the case differs from traditional click-wrap cases 
because SmartDownload users never actively agreed to the licensing terms, 
either on the Netscape site or on other sites that allow people to download 
software.

Representatives from AOL did not immediately return requests for comment.

Joshua Rubin, an attorney with Abbey Gardy, who represents the plaintiffs, 
said the decision draws an important line between online and offline 
agreements.

"The court distinguished between contracts that are made on the Internet 
and contracts that are made on paper," he said.
***************************
Washington Post
Firms Respond to White House Cybersecurity Call
By Brian Krebs
Tuesday, October 1, 2002; 3:46 PM


In a coup for the Bush administration's anti-regulatory approach to 
cybersecurity, a handful of leading network security firms on Wednesday 
will launch new products to protect government and private-sector networks 
from the most serious Internet security threats.

For the first time, some of the biggest IT security vendors in the country 
are cooperating on defining the top 20 threats, overcoming a history of 
frequently disagreeing over which vulnerabilities deserve the most urgent 
attention.

People familiar with the program say it will figure prominently in IT 
security efforts under the proposed Department of Homeland Security and the 
White House's strategy for protecting the nation's most critical systems 
from cyberattack.

Government security experts have long been hampered by disagreements among 
the private network security firms that are hired to test and protect 
government systems, said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS 
Institute, a leading IT security research organization that has close ties 
to the government.

"One of the most fascinating pieces of data we found is that vendors differ 
completely on what they consider the worst threats," he said. "It's almost 
as if these companies operate in different universes."

Having a standardized list of the most important vulnerabilities makes it 
easier for security vendors to develop intrusion detection and scanning 
tools, Paller said.

At least five IT security vendors will use Wednesday's event to unveil 
product upgrades that cater to the top 20 threats, including Mission Viejo, 
Calif.-based Foundstone, Austin, Texas-based TippingPoint and Atlanta-based 
Internet Security Systems Inc.

One computer security firm based in Silicon Valley -- Qualys Inc. -- plans 
to launch a free online service that will allow companies to test their 
internal networks against the top threat list.

The White House is leading the creation of a national cybersecurity 
strategy that has been criticized by some experts for failing to include 
strict security guidelines and mandates for the private sector. The fact 
that private firms are cooperating with the government to identify and 
defeat top threats dovetails with the administration's line that the 
government can take the lead in raising awareness about cybersecurity 
without imposing strict rules on the private sector.

Wednesday's announcement is being hosted by the General Services 
Administration (GSA), which plays a leading role in coordinating the 
government's acquistion of goods and services, including IT security, from 
private companies. The GSA is expected to announce the creation of a task 
force to foster use of the top 20 list in future security testing contracts.

The GSA plans to ask the chief information officers of federal agencies to 
follow NASA's lead on tackling IT security. After years of failing to fix 
persistent vulnerabilities in its networks, the space agency recently 
conducted a top-down review of its security audit processes.

What NASA found, according to a case study to be released Wednesday, was 
that the commercial vulnerability scans turned up tens of thousands of 
security holes but offered little or conflicting guidance as to which 
problems were the most urgent. The workload so overwhelmed and confused 
NASA system administrators that they ended up accomplishing almost nothing.

NASA subsequently surveyed some 120,000 computers at its 10 field offices 
to learn which vulnerabilities were being exploited the most, and ordered 
administrators to patch those holes in more manageable batches of two dozen 
or so at a time. NASA administrators also created a friendly competition 
between the field offices to see which one could patch the holes first.

NASA is now on its fourth wave of vulnerability testing, and has managed to 
drastically reduce the number of successful hacker attacks. The agency's 
security effort will come under scrutiny again next month, when the General 
Accounting Office issues its annual computer security report cards to two 
dozen federal agencies. The agency earned a grade of "C-minus" for 2001, 
well above the grade of "F" that most federal agencies earned last year.

Certainly not all federal employees are as motivated by a technological 
challenge as the average NASA engineer. But the agency's experience has 
plenty of relevance for private-sector security administrators and 
consultants who frequently struggle under near-impossible workloads, said 
Dan Ingevaldson, team leader for the research arm of Internet Security Systems.

"Everyone is fully aware of the amount of information and work scanners can 
generate," Ingevaldson said. "That's why it's so important to have some 
sort of consensus across the board that tells (systems administrators) what 
they should look at right now and what could potentially be put off until 
the next week."
*************************
Government Computer News
DOD limits wireless use, will study vulnerabilities further
By Dawn S. Onley

The Defense Department CIO last week issued a policy imposing restrictions 
on the use of wireless devices at the Pentagon.

Effective immediately, the Pentagon Area Common Information Technology 
Wireless Security Policy prohibits employees from connecting wireless 
devices, such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants, to 
any classified network and from using such devices as a primary means of 
communication for mission-critical operations.

The policy also prohibits DOD employees from using wireless devices to 
download freeware and shareware enhancements or other extraneous software. 
The policy does, however, permits the use of wireless devices to access 
unclassified networks if the Pentagon Designated Approving Authority for 
Common IT has OKed it.

At the same time, DOD leaders continued a moratorium that prohibits 
installing new telecommunications networks to support wireless services 
until the Pentagon has finished assessing the security vulnerabilities of 
wireless technologies. Defense CIO John Stenbit has asked the National 
Security Agency director to develop a Wireless Technology Vulnerabilities 
Database for the department to use for the assessment effort.

DOD will use this information to create a departmentwide policy on wireless 
use.
***************************
Government Executive
House lawmaker renews push for cybersecurity measures
By Maureen Sirhal, National Journal's Technology Daily

A key House lawmaker is moving to reauthorize legislation that would impose 
security requirements on federal agencies through two different vehicles, 
signaling what he sees as the urgency of extending information security 
measures before Congress adjourns.

The House Government Reform Technology and Procurement Policy Subcommittee 
on Tuesday approved legislation to promote online government and included 
in that bill, H.R. 2458, a provisionbased on the Federal Information 
Security Act (FISMA)to permanently reauthorize 2000 Government Information 
Security Reform Act (GISRA) and institute other cybersecurity requirements 
for agencies.

Subcommittee Chairman Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, added the FISMA 
language to the e-government bill even though he already has won House 
passage of the proposal as part of another measure, H.R. 5005, that would 
create a Homeland Security Department. A Senate e-government bill, S. 803, 
also contains a provision to permanently reauthorize GISRA.

Under that law, agencies must assess their information security practices 
periodically. The provision in the e-government bill would permanently 
extend those requirements and provide for additional security enhancements.

"We think it's so important that we are covering all our bases," Davis 
spokesman David Marin said of the decision to add the FISMA language as a 
"rider" to two separate bills. "Clearly, there are concerns on the House 
side, at this point, that the Senate is not moving quickly enough on 
homeland security," he said. The Senate debate on homeland security has 
been stalled for weeks, primarily over a labor-related dispute.

GISRA is set to expire Nov. 1, although the House has passed a six-month 
extension as part of the fiscal 2003 Defense Department reauthorization 
bill. Marin noted that the temporary extension buys some time until 
legislators can pass the GISRA enhancements.

Davis and other proponents of the broader e-government bill aim to move the 
measure to a full vote in the Government Reform Committee on Oct. 9. "It is 
our goal to get it through the committee and on to the House calendar next 
week," he added.
***********************
San Francisco Chronicle
Corner grocer joins growing biometric boom
MIKE CRISSEY, Associated Press Writer

When Serafin's Food Market opened 76 years ago, someone could pass a check 
with their good name and a smile. Today, it takes a fingerprint.

Dan Serafin, the third-generation owner of Erie's oldest corner grocery 
store, has joined a growing number of retailers who have added biometrics 
-- technology that can identify individuals by physical characteristics, 
such as eye patterns, voice tones and fingerprints -- to their anti-scam 
arsenals.

Serafin shelled out $8,000 for a Dell computer and a fingerprint scanner 
and is paying $60 a month to Herndon, Va.-based BioPay for a check 
verification system that makes IDs, signatures and gut feelings obsolete.

The computer, tucked underneath the register, is linked to BioPay's 
database of more than 250,000 registered customers.

The database stores images of customers' fingerprints, their pictures, 
their driver's licenses and social security numbers, and lists and copies 
of checks they have passed before. The computer can warn cashiers if 
someone has cashed more than one check a day or has passed a bad check 
elsewhere.

"There are a thousand scams out there. You've got to stay smarter than the 
crooks," said Serafin, 40, who has enrolled 611 customers in the past two 
months. "It is not the $20 thing here and there anymore. They get you good."

Other retailers apparently agree.

BioPay has sold about 250 of its systems in 22 states, mainly to other 
mom-and-pop shops or small grocery store chains, said Susan Buck, a company 
spokeswoman. The company, founded in 1999, recently verified its 1 
millionth transaction.

"The assumption was that consumers wouldn't accept this technology. They 
would be fearful and they wouldn't use it," Buck said. "That is not what is 
happening. It is a win-win for the consumer and retailer."

Buck said the company is trying to persuade a big-box retailer to test the 
system.

But it's not all about security. Some retailers have added the systems, 
touting the convenience of letting people's fingers do the buying.

More than 2,000 customers at a Thiftway grocery store in Seattle are taking 
part in a test-run of a system run by Oakland, Calif.-based Indivos Corp. 
that links their fingerprints to their credit cards or bank accounts. A 
handful of Kroger grocery stores in Texas have a similar system by a rival 
firm, Biometrics Access Corp.

A California McDonald's briefly explored biometrics before abandoning it. A 
handful of schools in Pennsylvania allow students to buy cafeteria food 
with similar systems.

In the next four years, sales of biometric hardware and software is 
expected to boom from $200 million this year to $2 billion in 2006, 
according to the International Biometric Industry Association.

But some groups question whether security and convenience should trump the 
technologies' shortcomings and people's privacy.

Some critics point to the federal government's use of cameras and 
face-recognition software at the Super Bowl to search for suspected 
terrorists as one example of a biometric invasion of privacy.

"In some degrees, you could be part of a virtual lineup," said Mihir 
Kshirsagar, policy analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic 
Privacy Information Center, a public-interest research group.

And the technology isn't foolproof, Kshirsagar said.

Recently, researchers in Japan were able to lift latent fingerprints and 
create molds out of gelatin that succeeded in fooling fingerprint scanners 
four out of five times. A paper detailing the work was presented to the 
International Society for Optical Engineering.

"You don't even need to chop off a thumb, you just need to spoof it," 
Kshirsagar said. "And once your biometric is compromised it is hard to get 
a new one."

Serafin likened the process of registering his customers in the fingerprint 
system to being arrested, but said his customers don't seem to mind.

"You are actually booking people in a sense. It is just like the police 
department. They take your picture and fingerprints and all of your 
information," Serafin said. "But of the more than 600 people we have had, 
only two have refused it."
*****************************
Wired News
Reality Check for Web Design
By Kendra Mayfield
"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless 
of disability is an essential aspect."
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, recognized that universal 
access is a critical element of good design.

The Web's landscape has altered dramatically since its inception, when many 
websites completely ignored users with disabilities.

"Most project managers assumed that blind people could not use the Web 
anyway, so therefore they also could not use the specific website that was 
being developed," said Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen.

"We have now eradicated this misunderstanding, and most Internet managers 
do know that they have to care about users with disabilities."

Despite progress, websites today are still three times harder for users 
with disabilities to use than for other users.

"In most projects, accessibility has fairly low priority because project 
managers underestimate the number of people who are impacted by design 
problems," Nielsen said. "They think that they are just losing a handful of 
customers, whereas in fact they may be turning away millions of customers, 
especially among senior citizens, who constitute a big and rich group 
that's getting more and more active online."

Now, a new software product allows developers to check pages for compliance 
with usability guidelines as they code.

The software, "LIFT-Nielsen Norman Group Edition," or LIFT NN/g, works with 
Macromedia Dreamweaver (4.0 or MX) on both Windows and Macintosh.

LIFT NN/g checks to ensure that websites are compliant with the World Wide 
Web Consortium's accessibility guidelines and Section 508 guidelines.

"The new software basically makes it easier to be a Web designer and to 
remember the guidelines for users with disabilities," Nielsen said. 
"Instead of relying on having the designer remember every single guideline 
at every single step of developing the website, we are offloading the 
memory burden onto the computer, which is very good at staying alert and 
checking for a lot of details all the time without getting tired."

The Nielsen Norman Group created guidelines by conducting user tests and 
observing a range of users (including those who were blind or had poor 
vision or motor-skill challenges) interacting with a variety of websites.

The software alerts developers of any possible violations of these 
guidelines. A fix wizard automatically repairs broken tables, images, 
scripts, cascading menus and other glitches. A JavaScript Analyzer avoids 
common errors. A monitor checks work as it's completed, so mistakes are 
fixed before they are perpetuated on multiple Web pages.

Hundreds of pages can be processed in just a few minutes, saving hours that 
would otherwise be spent coding by hand.

"The main benefit is that the computer doesn't get tired; thus, it will 
check every design detail for every single guideline all the time," Nielsen 
said. "Also, the software has a simple link from any occurrence of a 
potential usability problem to the relevant research material that explains 
why it's an issue and what questions to consider when deciding whether to 
keep or fix the questionable design element.

"This is much faster than having to look up the answer in a book, and in 
fact it's a great example of the original promise of hypertext."

The software goes beyond merely focusing on accessibility to promote 
usability and improve the Web user experience for everyone.

"Technical accessibility is not enough to make a website easy to use," 
Nielsen said. "The real question is whether users can get what they want 
from a website in a reasonable amount of time and whether the visit is 
pleasant for them. Users with disabilities are humans and need easy and 
simple user interfaces just like anybody else."

"Making websites more accessible can go beyond the benefits to people with 
disabilities," agreed Doug Bowman, network design manager for Terra Lycos 
(Terra Lycos is Wired News' parent company). "Accessibility measures also 
make good business sense.
"The Web is just as much a public space as our downtown office buildings 
and suburban shopping malls. By not being aware of, or taking the time to 
implement, common Web accessibility measures and guidelines, we are -- as 
website producers -- essentially hiding the elevators, ramps, handrails and 
wide doors which welcome anyone into our virtual buildings and help them 
find their way or move from place to place."

But while the software automates many core usability and accessibility 
solutions, humans must ultimately decide whether a design has a usability 
problem.

"As with all usability, it is based on the need to create good human 
interaction, so it is important not to take the human out of the design 
process," said Jason Taylor, senior product manager for UsableNet.

The LIFT NN/g software works like Microsoft Word's grammar check, allowing 
designers to check fundamentals that are sometimes missed due to busy 
schedules and tight deadlines. But like grammar, usability doesn't always 
follow strict conventions.

"While it's helpful to know when you've gone outside those normal, 
recommended practices, automated software could misguide someone with less 
experience in Web accessibility if they follow every suggestion," Bowman said.

The cost of the software, available at UsableNet for $549, could be 
prohibitive for some small websites.

"I don't see smaller companies happily forking over another $550 for 
accessibility software when they really haven't yet been educated on the 
benefits of making their websites accessible," Bowman said.

What's more, some larger companies use other HTML editors besides 
Dreamweaver for designing and managing websites.

The LIFT NN/g software is just one of the evaluation, repair and transform 
tools that can be used in conjunction with more complex websites serving 
environments used by large websites.

"Large, dynamic database-driven sites often use complex scripts and serving 
environments to pull together content from multiple sources, then compile 
it into HTML," Bowman said. "Website design may begin in an editor like 
Dreamweaver. But the final HTML churned out by a content management system 
may leave out some of the accessibility-checked code from Dreamweaver."

Despite these drawbacks, software producers and designers agree that any 
improvement in accessibility for people with disabilities will also make it 
easier for other Internet users to navigate the Web.

"Over time, these tools become educational in nature," Bowman said. 
"Repeated reminders of what could be done can eventually become ingrained 
and lead to common practice."
******************************
Wired News
Library of Congress Taps the Grid
By Kendra Mayfield

Scientists have harnessed the power of grid computing to seek a cure for 
AIDS, search for alien life and map the human genome.

Now researchers are assessing ways to tap massive amounts of computing 
power to preserve some of American history's rarest digital relics, from 
Ansel Adams photographs to original drafts of the Declaration of Independence.

The Library of Congress is evaluating grid technology developed at the San 
Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to preserve and manage the library's 
digital collections.

The American Memory project is one of the largest digitized archives of 
U.S. history, with more than 7.5 million digital records from 100 
collections of manuscripts, books, maps, films, sound recordings and 
photographs.

"When you're (preserving) millions of digital entities you have to use 
automated processing," said Reagan Moore, co-director of the Data and 
Knowledge Systems program at SDSC. "You need mechanisms that automate the 
management of those 8 million items."

The Library is evaluating how emerging data Grid technologies, such as 
SDSC's Storage Resource Broker (SRB) data grid software, can be used beyond 
the lab.

"The grid technologies being developed at SDSC are attempting to provide a 
means to manage and use data in a distributed manner," said Martha 
Anderson, of the Library of Congress' Office of Strategic Initiatives. "All 
the digital data do not need to reside in the same physical location to be 
accessible and manageable by an institution charged with the mission of 
preserving and managing access to that digital data."

Grid technologies may help the library decide how to preserve the integrity 
of its collections when underlying technology changes.

"Data grid technologies provide levels of abstraction that you need to deal 
with changing technologies," Moore said. "You can manage data across old 
and new legacy storage systems."

While infrastructure components will inevitably change over time, data grid 
technologies could help preserve digital records indefinitely.

"You could build a system that evolves continuously forever," Moore said.

With 6 petabytes (6,000 terabytes) of storage capacity, the San Diego 
Supercomputer Center has plenty of room to store the 8 terabytes of 
American Memory's digital data, plus additional records as the collection 
evolves over decades, or even centuries.

But the effort goes beyond just preservation. The library will also explore 
how emerging data grid technologies can be used to repurpose its collections.

Repurposed content can allow users to generate new perspectives of digital 
holdings. A researcher examining the American Memory collection for details 
about a Mars mission might be able to compile NASA materials on the Mars 
Rover and congressional material on budget debates, for example.

Since digital media is so ephemeral, academic institutions like the Library 
of Congress must collaborate with commercial developers to create 
technologies that support long-term preservation of digital content, 
Anderson said.

"It is clear that no one institution can manage and preserve all the 
significant cultural heritage data that are currently being generated or 
captured in digital formats," she said.

"Preservation of digital materials is very dependent upon technology but 
also requires cooperation across the public and private sector to develop 
standards and relationships that foster a broader consciousness and 
commitment to preservation for the long term."
****************************
CNN.com
Lady Justice goes digital
Yakima traffic offenders get their day in court via the Web
By Jeordan Legon (CNN)
Wednesday, October 2, 2002



(CNN) -- Unhappy with that speeding ticket? E-mail it to the judge.

A court in Yakima, Washington is taking Lady Justice digital by allowing 
drivers to e-mail their excuses or explanations instead of appearing in court.

Other courts allow attorneys to file briefs online. And many counties let 
offenders pay traffic fines on the Web. But Yakima County is believed to be 
the first court in the country to let defendants plead their cases via e-mail.

The county is doing it to ease court overcrowding. In addition, defendants 
don't have to miss a day of work to appear before the judge.

"This allows someone to sit in the convenience of their home, organize 
their thoughts and send it in," said Gloria Hintze, a court administrator.

Limited availability
The program is only available for minor infractions such as speeding, 
running a stop sign or missing a tail light. And only those who plead 
guilty and ask for a mitigation hearing are allowed to participate. But 
it's ideal for those who want their traffic fine lowered or thrown out, 
Hintze said.

The court also allows people to appear before the judge -- the 
old-fashioned way -- and accepts written responses by regular mail . So 
far, about half of the 2,500 mitigation hearings the court handles each 
year are handled via mail, which inspired the more convenient e-mail 
program, Hintze said.

Yakima is testing the digital waters. But across the country, many judges 
are wary of launching such programs, said Lin Walker, who researches 
technology for the National Center for State Courts.

Tough questions
She said judges struggle with the impact of allowing attorneys to use 
computers to present evidence in court.

"Does the proficiency of operating that equipment take away from the 
integrity of the proceedings?" Walker asked.

In Yakima, all e-mails from litigants are handled on secure servers. A 
judge still opens a hearing in the courtroom, reads the e-mail and issues a 
verdict. The court clerk later mails the verdict.

Walker, who monitors tech advances at state courts nationwide, said she 
expects more judges to at least consider launching such programs.

"The Internet opens up a whole new ball of wax" for the courts, she said.
**************************
USA Today
Four EU members seek changes to data privacy law

BRUSSELS (Reuters)  Four European Union member states are seeking changes 
to the bloc's tough data privacy law, hoping to cut red tape and facilitate 
cross-border data transfers, a document obtained by Reuters showed on Tuesday.

In a position paper sent to the European Commission, Britain, Finland, 
Austria and Sweden said they wanted the directive to be amended to redress 
current imbalances and remove unnecessary bureaucratic requirements.

"The rules must give effective protection to individuals' personal data 
without unnecessarily restricting the processing needed to deliver the 
services which our increasingly technologically sophisticated society 
demands," the paper said.

"The proposals seek to achieve a better balance between those two 
requirements than the directive currently does."

European Commission officials said the paper was sent two weeks ago along 
with comments from other member states and several interested parties.

Under the EU data protection directive, personal data ranging from 
sensitive medical records to phone numbers or e-mail addresses can be 
disclosed or transferred to third parties only with the individual's 
explicit consent.

The law, drafted before Internet use became as widespread as it is today, 
was expected to enhance privacy protection but has caused a headache for 
companies operating globally when they transfer data from one country to 
another.

U.S. companies have been particularly vocal against the EU law, which 
forces non-EU firms to match EU privacy standards.

"By imposing duplicative, burdensome and costly requirements particularly 
on global companies, (the EU laws) interfere with companies' ability to run 
their businesses effectively and efficiently," the Global Privacy Alliance 
said in a position paper.

The Global Privacy Alliance represents such companies as Citigroup, 
Fidelity Investments, General Motors, IBM and Oracle.

"At the same time, it is unclear if this approach provides any added 
privacy protection," the paper said.


Citizens' fears

The European Commission is looking into possible amendments to its privacy 
laws after an online survey showed broad dissatisfaction with the current 
regime.

But while business wants the EU to soften the law, European citizens said 
they felt the level of protection was inadequate, a survey involving over 
9,000 EU citizens showed.

Most respondents said they feared their data could be misused while they 
used the Internet, in particular when conducting online financial transactions.

The privacy rules have also put the EU at odds with the United States, as 
the bloc forbids data transfer to U.S. companies unless they make a formal 
pledge to respect EU laws.

But data transfer appears to be difficult even within the 15-nation 
European Union as the different countries have not implemented the law 
harmoniously.
****************************
Spectrum Online
When Humans are The Moth in the Machine

Last month, in an attempt to banish the ghosts of elections past, the state 
of Florida rolled out tens of millions of dollars' worth of shiny new 
electronic voting equipment.

But rather than the exorcism that officials were hoping for, they got a 
séance. Instead of hanging chads and incomprehensible ballots, voters got 
touch-screen-based systems that crashed and froze.

A humiliating indictment of electronic voting? Not really. For while it did 
raise some of the big issues surrounding electronic votingsecurity and 
auditability [see "A Better Ballot Box?"]the main culprit in Florida was 
old-fashioned human folly. The episode confirmed once again that common 
sense is never common, particularly when it comes to the procurement and 
deployment of new technology by government entities great and small.

Any IT manager worth her Porsche will tell you that putting a new networked 
electronic system of any sort and size into play requires systems 
management. Lots of it. Unlike rusty old polling booths, electronic voting 
systems can't simply be dragged into high school gymnasiums and put to 
work. They have to be thoroughly tested and monitored, debugged, and 
optimizedin short, professionally supported. The people who supervise their 
use have to be trained, and trained well, preferably more than a few hours 
before the voting begins. Whose idea was it that largely untrained, 
volunteer poll workers would suddenly be able to troubleshoot these 
sophisticated electronic devices on the fly? Was everyone involved 
unfamiliar with the terms "systems failure" and "operator error"?

There has also been some whining about the manufacturers' refusal to allow 
their machines and software to be scrutinized. To which we reply: whine 
away. But the next time you put nice, big, fat government contracts out for 
electronic voting systems, don't give those contracts to manufacturers who 
do substandard work and don't meet your project specifications, who refuse 
to allow adequate inspections of their machines and installation 
procedures, and who don't provide adequate tech support. And don't buy 
stuff in a mad rush just so you can say that you did, hoping to ward off, 
in this case, the blizzard of bad publicity that would have surrounded any 
decision to stick with the infamous butterfly ballots and bent punch cards.

A decade ago, when people began to imagine in earnest how electronic 
information devices would impact the election process, most of the 
speculation was optimistic. People foresaw the beginning of digital 
democracy, of a re-engaged citizenry (particularly in the United States) 
for whom civic responsibility and political discourse would take on renewed 
importance. Everyone, not just the stalwart few, would vote on matters of 
local and national significance. Such hopes should not be abandoned because 
some officials in Florida made bad decisions about technology deployment.

When the smoke clears, we might even be grateful that these election 
follies have reminded us yet again about a systems-management truism: 
people can be as big a bug as any software glitch when it comes to getting 
a new technology to work properly.
********************

Lillie Coney
Public Policy Coordinator
U.S. Association for Computing Machinery
Suite 510
2120 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-478-6124
lillie.coney@xxxxxxx