Research Blog : legislation

SOPA & PIPA gaining attention after protest blackouts

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:51:00 GMT

With some websites (such as Google and Flickr) making statements today, along with other sites completely shutting down for the day (such as Wikipedia, reddit, and WordPress), the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are gaining mainstream attention.

SOPA, in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PIPA, in the U.S. Senate, are bills are aimed at foreign websites that infringe copyrighted material. The US Department of Justice would have the authority to block access to, as well as force advertisers to cease business with, an infringing site. Search engines would also have to remove these sites from their search results.

Arguments against these bills (made by the tech giants named above, as well as eBay, Craigslist, Twitter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and many more) claim that they're too vaguely written, they won't actually curb piracy, and that they could be applied to their own websites. This is a big concern with sites that allow users to upload content, as the sites fear that they could be completely shut down due to infringing content that a single user might upload.

However, SOPA/PIPA supporters claim that things are being blown out of proportion. Cary Sherman, CEO of the RIAA, has stated that there are safeguards in place to prevent false claims against sites.

This is an extremely basic look at SOPA & PIPA. This post is intended to be an informative post, leading readers to additional/complete information; this is NOT an opinion piece. Take a look at the additional info yourself, and if YOU have an opinion feel free to post it in the comments section!

More Information

Library of Congress: Read both the SOPA and PIPA bills in their entirety.
InfoWorld: "SOPA and PIPA: The pros and cons" article.
CNET News: "RIAA chief: Copyright bills won't kill the Internet" article.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context database: In this database, search for SOPA or PIPA for news, audio recordings, and magazine articles about these bills.
Stop American Censorship: AmericanCensorship.org, an anti-SOPA/PIPA site, provides infographics and videos about the bills.
SOPA Strike: A list of the websites striking and/or shutting down today in protest to SOPA/PIPA.

DISCLAIMER: These links are provided as a convenience, offering differing viewpoints. The links are NOT an endorsement of these sites, nor the content contained within.

Constitution Day -- September 17th

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:13:00 GMT

September 17th is the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. It's a great day to spend some time learning about this important document that affects all of us who live in the United States of America. If you click right here, you'll go to the National Archives page for the Constitution. You can read a transcript of the original and also look at images of the original document.

Here are some library resources for the Constitution:

The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation, written by Jonathan Hennessey with art by Aaron McConnell

The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, edited by Jack N. Rakove

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the U.S. Constitution, by Tim Harper

U.S. Constitution for Dummies by Michael Arnheim

And for little citizens:

We the People: The Constitution of the United States of America, by Peter Spier

We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, with illustrations and forward by David Catrow

The Health Care Reform Act turmoil

SuDocQueen@evpl — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:33:00 GMT

Opinions and concerns abound about this issue, sometimes to the point that the facts get obscured. Can I separate all the facts from the fiction? Nope, I can be duped and sucked in as easily as the next person. But I can tell you where to go to form your own opinions undiluted by anyone else with an agenda. Thomas from the Library of Congress is an excellent site for following legislation and the workings of Congress. As a matter of fact, Thomas has made it easy for people right now. You don't even have to search for the House's health care bill. They've put up a direct link on the very front of their website. From that link, you can then read a summary of the bill, see what Committees it's been referred to, see who is sponsoring it, and read the bill word for word yourself. Be warned, the bill's over 1,000 pages long and very dense to read! That doesn't mean I think it's not worth reading; I'm just saying don't expect to skim through it on your lunch hour unless you belong to Mensa. :)

You can also get some very useful links from Congressman Brad Ellsworth's "Online Office." He has the PDF of the full bill, just as Thomas does, but he additionally has links to the committee work being done on the bill.

And while we're talking Congressmen, if you want to share your opinion, do you know who to share yours with? Indiana's Senators are Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar, while Evansville's Congressman is Brad Ellsworth.

Lastly, here's on other place I like to go when I'm inundated with opinions, http://factcheck.org/. They appear non-partisan to me. They've debunked pro and con statements surrounding the health care debate. And, their website/services don't exist solely for the health care debate (it just looks that way right now :). Take a look at their Archives or Ask Factcheck to see some of the other political issues they address.

Consumer Product Safety Commission Announces One-Year Stay on Implementation of Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Bufkinite@evpl — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:08:00 GMT

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was scheduled to become law on February 10th of this year, and it had librarians all over the country worried, in that it would have required every book in the children's library - and possibly in the entire library - to be tested for the presence of lead.

But on January 30th the Consumer Products Safety Commission released an announcement to the Federal Register staying implementation of CPSIA for one year, until February 10, 2010. Click here to read the announcement.

This give libraries a little breathing room, but only until 2010. We know the books in our collections are safe, and so the American Library Association is recommending that libraries be exempt from this law. Those interested in assisting libraries in the effort to get libraries exepmted from CPSIA's requirements can find more information here.