library links

[deborah]

A few links from today:

Bad government:

• Free Government Information (free_govt_info) has a fairly depressing story on some of the problems inherent in e-government, specifically how grants.gov disenfranchises small institutions.
  
• A teacher is convicted of four counts of injury to a minor after a spyware-infested computer in her classroom starts a porn hydra, and potentially faces up to 40 years in prison. The school's filter had an expired license, and even though a computer expert testified that the spyware came from a hairstyling site, and the prosecution didn't have the computer checked for spyware, the prosecutor convinced the jury that the teacher was actively searching for porn.
  
• This one's a little older: FCC Releases, Withholds Ownership Documents.
  

Bad responses to bad government:

• On the other side of the Big Brother coin, I don't see how wikileaks can possibly work. It seems to me that it would be filled with fraudulent unverifiable documents almost immediately. It's a nice idea, though. (Also, they have to stop using the word "Wikipedia".)
  

To balance this all out, a good government link from Free Government Information: The Consumer Action Website, a handy resource provided by the feds.

Comments

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read a more stripped-down (heh) version of the porn hydra story from the Globe this morning. It is utter bullshit. A) Give me a break; of course she didn't mean to show the kids those sites. B) 40 YEARS??? I'm a teacher too; I'm all about protecting children from actual predators. But even if someone deliberately showed my 7th-graders a few minutes of the vilest bestiality porn...that's a firing offense, to be sure. A psych evaluation is clearly required. Maybe a year or two in prison, tops, with probation to make sure she's not doing anything worse. But what amounts to a life sentence? Are you fucking kidding me? AAAARRGGHHH!

[deborah]

hopefully the appeal will go differently. I wish people involved in making laws and judgments about the Internet UNDERSTOOD it.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

It's preposterous that viewing an image can cause an "injury".

[deborah]

I dunno, I'm pretty sure goatse made my brain bleed...

Thanks for the shoutout

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for pointing to a story on Free Government Information. Glad we can be cheering as well as depressing. Perhaps this video of the best titles ever! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBG8mfCdYlM) can cheer you up as well.

Keep smiling, Daniel Cornwall, Free Government Information (http://freegovinfo.info)

Re: Thanks for the shoutout

[deborah]

I love free government information. You often gave me depressing news, but I absolutely loved the best titles ever. When you just had the flickr site up, I sent that to so many of my friends.

Thanks for the blog!