Marcia Hoffman and Brian Rowe explore the legislative and non-legislative possibilities for rethinking “cybercrime” and copyright in the wake of the Aaron Swartz suicide. Aaron Swartz was a brilliant hacker and political activist who downloaded entire JSTOR archive. Swartz was charged with thirteen counts of felony hacking and wire fraud and faced a possible sentence of decades in prison and millions in fines.

Hofmann discussed the broad reach and potential misuse of the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. She explored Swartz’s prosecution under the CFAA, court interpretations of the legislation, and proposals for legislative reform.

Rowe focused on the growing chasm between the norms of digital citizens and the laws written for controlling print publications. He discussed non-legislative options for change, including Swartz’s Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, Open Access Pledges, and the creation of norms that reinforce open access scholarship.

Moderated by: Ryan Calo, Assistant Professor, University of Washington School of Law

Thanks to the UW Communications Department, especially Anjali Vats and Matt McGarrity for make the event happen.

Marcia Hoffman of EFF and I are speaking next week at University of Washington on Open Access and Copyright!  This should be a great event.

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013
Kane Hall 220
University of Washington
6:30pm – 8:00pm

Doors open at 6:15pm

 

Aaron Swartz, brilliant hacker and political activist, committed suicide in January 2013 in the midst of an aggressive criminal investigation into his downloading of the entire JSTOR archive. Swartz was charged with thirteen counts of felony hacking and wire fraud and faced a possible sentence of decades in prison and millions in fines. In the wake of his suicide, many have called for the reevaluation of the cybercrime laws under which he was prosecuted. In this roundtable discussion, Marcia Hoffman and Brian Rowe will explore the legislative and non-legislative possibilities for rethinking “cybercrime.”

Hofmann will discuss the broad reach and potential misuse of the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. She will explore Swartz’s prosecution under the CFAA, court interpretations of the legislation, and proposals for legislative reform.

Rowe will focus on the growing chasm between the norms of digital citizens and the laws written for controlling print publications. He will discuss non-legislative options for change, including Swartz’s Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, Open Access Pledges, and the creation of norms that reinforce open access scholarship.
Moderated by: Ryan Calo, Assistant Professor, University of Washington School of Law

I cosigned comments to the Washington State Supreme Court last week on the proposed GR 31.1. This rule covers public Access to Administrative Records. The major reasons I joined these comments to make sure we included online digital access to records by default and to support the idea that safety and security should be a consideration for granting access to documents much the way it is in the Freedom of Information Act.  The idea of including safety and security in this rule is different but related to a traditional privacy concern and needs to be explored more from a policy perspective.  I hope to look into this issue in the coming year and how this could affect transparency in government and free speech.

Below is an edited short informal intro statement Don Horowitz made to the court that explain some of our concerns in more detail and attached are the full comments in MS word with track changes.

To the Clerk of the Washington State Supreme Court.

The below comments and the attachment are submitted by me in my individual capacity. In addition, I have received authorization from Brian Rowe, current Chair of the Access to Justice Board’s Technology Committee and Mike Katell, former Chair of that Committee, as am I, to advise those who read this message and material, that they join in the views and suggestions expressed, also in their individual capacities.

This submission is made with the intent of being a friend of the Court and its Rules Committee. We express no opinion relative to the other comments heretofore made, which we have read, except to say that many of them raise issues worthy of consideration.

The purpose of this message is to improve the draft as it was published, to make the rule as clear and effective as possible, address areas of potential confusion, lack of clarity, omissions, and such. This is a very important rule in a very important area; the rule should be as clear and as effective as possible both in substance and process. The attachment to this message uses the MS Word Tracking tool, and shows suggestions that we believe will improve the draft, and makes comments which we believe should be considered and addressed in any further drafts or in the rule as adopted.

…

Without going into each suggestion or comment, there are a few general comments I would make relative to the suggestions and comments in the attachment.

At various points in the proposed rule, the concept of personal and institutional safety or security is mentioned – and very properly so. Safety issues are on their own very important, but in addition inappropriate lack of privacy can and often does lead to safety and security issues. I’ve therefore suggested some places in the draft where the word or concept of safety should be added. Security is a part of safety, but not all of it, and therefore when the word “safety” is or should be added, that does not mean the the word “security” should be deleted.

A second and very important drafting issue is the use of the word “rules” in many parts of this prospective rule. Whose rules or what rules are almost never designated or made clear. For example, does that include local court rules, WAC rules, etc.? I have suggested that in most instances when the word “rule” or “rules” is used, it should be rules of this court, the State Supreme Court. This is not a subject that should allow for lack of consistency or uniformity, either in substance or in process or procedure, or in cost, and therefore local rules should not be allowed to govern any part of this. If you strongly disagree and want to allow a limited use of local rules, then not only should there be a clear provision that any local rule cannot be inconsistent with, contrary to or violative of any Supreme Court rule, but the proposed local rule must be reviewed and approved by the Supreme Court Rules Committee before it takes effect. We have already seen, in other contexts, the insufficiency in actual practice of not having a pre-review of potential local rules even where there is Supreme Court language prohibiting inconsistency, contrariness or violation of Supreme Court rules. The inconsistency or violation is often ignored in the local rule or is hidden in the procedure. That shouldn’t happen in any rule, and certainly not in this one.

There are places in the draft where something can either be included or excluded, allowed or prohibited if a rule or statute includes or excludes, allows or prohibits it. What if there’s both a Supreme Court rule and a state statute, and they’re inconsistent? Which takes precedence? This Rule 31.1 is about courts and their administrative records, not about case records. There is certainly an argument that this court’s rule would have precedence in such circumstances. Federal statutes are also mentioned. There may be federal law that validly completely covers this territory and takes precedence, but there are a lot of federal statutes that would not and should not. This needs to be addressed.

Lastly, let me make an offer. In the attachment, relative to Section (h), Charging of Fees, we have stated that a section on Fee Waiver or Reduction and procedures for same must be included in the Rule, to include a provision for online as well as in person ability to apply for and obtain fee waiver or reduction. I further stated that I have specific experience relative to drafting such provisions, and if the Court committee wishes, I would be happy to do a draft of such a provision for this rule. Please let me know.

These are some but not all of what you’ll find in the attachment.

Thank you and the Court for the careful consideration I know will be given.

…

Full comments GR 31.1 Draft w comments Horowitz Rowe Katell

The ACLU of Washington also submitted comment that include concerns over personal privacy worth reading.

PS: Sorry for the proprietary formatting of the marked up version.  If I was the primary author I would have published them in an open format.  Given time constraints and my role as a cosigner this did not happen.

• What functions do county courts seek in electronic records access systems?
• To what extent do these systems enhance, supplant, or merely coexist with traditional record keeping and filing systems?
• How have counties integrated electronic records systems to date, and what are their ultimate goals?

• The minimum acceptable functionality of an electronic records storage, management, and access platform;
• Efficient model forms and fee schedules for all counties and its litigants

Digital Rights Brainstorm & Drinks

Wednesday, September 19, 2012 7:00 PM @ The Raygun Lounge 501 E. Pine Street, Seattle, WA

1st informal meeting of Digital Rights Northwest. Get together with others that care about digital civil liberties and talk about what we want to do here in Seattle to shape the future technology and our rights in the northwest.  This meeting is open to anyone. Come with your ideas or just to meet other passionate people.

A great local Non-profit, Knowledge as Power, is running a usability project for the Law Library of Congress and needs participants:

Ever wanted to make legal resources more available and easily accessible? Tired of the same old hard to use government websites?

You can help by participating in a usability study for the Law Library of Congress. Knowledge As Power, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Seattle, is hosting a series of usability studies on behalf of the Law Library of Congress to improve the next version of their

website: loc.gov/law. The study is short and the feedback you give will directly affect the redesign of loc.gov/law.

If you are interested in participating, please fill out this short survey at: http://bit.ly/kapform

Thank you,

Knowledge As Power

This is a great follow up for our recent usability roundtable Jackie Holmes ran http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Fu4-0CmkQ .

Austin Kim a VISTA working with the NTAP project and soon to be 1L at NYU has just written a short white paper on possible Applications for Access to Justice.  I highly recommended checking the ideas out. Two of them were submitted to the Washington State Broadband apps contest at .

Mobile App Idea Summaries

Proposals Submitted to Evergreen Apps:
1) Limited English Proficiency Assistance
2) Legal Assistance Finder for the State of Washington

1. Citizenship Works – Naturalization Assistance via Mark O’brien, Pro Bono Net

Based off the CitizenshipWorksprojects, this mobile app would help immigrants find out if they are eligible to naturalize  in the United States, and if so, what steps they should take to get them through the process. Some of the features that would be included in this app are

• Physical presence calculator – allows users to enter green card date and all subsequent periods out of the country to determine eligibility:
• Language eligibility calculator
• Interactive “bring list” to ensure folks know what documents they need to bring to appointments with legal services providers
• Flashcards for English & Civics test preparation
• Savings calculator to help users plan for the application fee

Also included in this app would be a referral system so that people can find non-profit organizations that can help them through this process, as well as a know-your-rights resource.

2. Online Intake via Russell P. Butler, Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center, Inc.

An online intake mobile app would walk those with legal problems through an intuitive step-by-step process that allows a legal aid organization to easily obtain and sort through relative information. The intake system would then check to see if the prospective client is eligible for legal services, and if not, would provide resources, documents, and perhaps even referrals. This has the benefit of cutting down the costs for legal aid organizations in both time and money in doing intake as well as giving prospective clients another relatively easy way to look for legal assistance.

3. Ask-A-Volunteer-Lawyer App via William L. Jones, American Bar Association

Based off OnlineTNJustice.org, this mobile app would allow people to submit questions to a clearinghouse with the possibility of receiving free legal advice from volunteer lawyers. This app would be targeted at low-income people and focus on issues like foreclosure, domestic violence, and family law. However, there would be no guarantee that the question would be answered or a lawyer will take the case, but it would be a great way to increase access to justice by providing a quick go-to location for small legal questions.

4.  Field Guide to FAQs in Illinois Law via Gwen Daniels, Illinois Legal Aid Online

This mobile app based of Illinois Legal Aid’s mobile app and the Illinois Pro Bono app that creates resources and documents aimed at addressing the most commonly asked questions in legal aid. Since most legal aid organizations already have substantial online resources, these apps take these resources, put them in a database, organize them as guides, and then are released as apps.

5. Choiceboxing via Marc Lauritsen, Capstone Practice Systems

This mobile app would be a cloud-based collaborative decision making tool. It would allow multiple users to look at the same decision-making interface and simultaneously see edits (think Google Docs). For example, this would allow attorneys help clients with document assembly or figure out exactly what the client wants. This could be extended even further with the ability to create custom made content to be specific to any given situation. There are many decisions in the nonprofit legal services context that would benefit from a handy tool that leverages interactive visualization and social production techniques.

Read the attachment for a full explanation.

6 .Legal Aid News / Legal Aid Finder via Gwen Daniels, Illinois Legal Aid Online

This app would be based off the work from Pine Tree Legal Aid’s already existent mobile apps. While Pine Tree Legal released these as two separate apps, it would be possible to integrate the two apps into one.

The Legal Aid News app provides news about legal aid and related programs around the country. News is available for legal aid programs state by state, for national legal centers for low-income people, for the legal services corporation or for all the news. The app will provide the fifty most recent news stories for any state or category.

The Legal Aid Finder app provides contact information and website links for legal aid programs around the country. Information is provided on a state by state basis. Initially we provide information on only staff based programs providing direct representation to low-income clients, but look for an upgrade soon to include pro bono programs, as well.

7. Privacy checker via Claudia Johnson, Pro Bono Net

This app would be for for legal aid and non profit groups thinking of building an app that gives them a checklist of the dos and don’ts to protect the privacy of the users—and sample plain language disclaimer languages, etc. There are so many groups jumping on this that are not privacy experts, and the state of privacy in apps is still in flux—that it would be good to develop a tool that non-profits could use to plan their approach and technology.

The corollary of this would be to build an app targeted at information seekers—that gives them a way to ascertain if the app they are looking to download is up to snuff on privacy, etc. In the legal field, it would maybe list the “legit” apps, created by reputable groups, such as legal aid and bonafide non profits—so that they don’t download apps that take them to unscrupulous sites, places.

This may require checking against some standard—and I am not sure where industry standards are right now—probably not very advanced, considering how facebook apps can take your friend’s info but not yours, w/out any disclaimers to your friends or you that that is what they are doing…or the whole google taking info beyond what they needed for the mapping project…but maybe a think tank has some standards already in mind or guidelines or protocols—all of this would require research.

8. Triage (can be rolled into app 3, 4, or even 6) via Claudia Johnson, Pro Bono Net

A triage/self assessment tools. So, for example, for someone who may be getting laid off and worried about foreclosure—give them an app (tool) where they can figure out their options—so they can be ready should things turn out bad. If this was based on the recent settlement agreement from the AGs (the common terms/requirements) and federal law, then this could be replicated for other states.

Same thing with people who are victims of DV or harassment or stalking—or people who are not paid overtime—give them a tool to do a self assessment of what options they may have, based on their answers and then give them links to seek legal aid, if that is what they choose to do.

Triage tools that give people information based on their answers and then route them to right place for more help—would be great. This may help helplines reduce the glut of non-eligible calls—hopefully keeping the phone queues stable and not increasing.

I also would like to see IPAD/tablet apps for pro bono lawyers—the idea is that the volunteer could show up a the clinic or event (large group processing) and be given a tablet, and in that tablet they would have everything they need to provide the consult, and if they accept the case fill out forms etc etc.

9. Limited English Proficiency, via Claudia Johnson, Pro Bono Net

This app would help people access limited english proficiency (LEP) services in a variety of government, medical, and legal settings, and what to do if they are denied these services. With the high number of people in Washington who do not speak English as their primary language or even primary speakers who do not have the language proficiency to understand complex documents, this would help a classically marginalized group obtain access to justice and other important services. There already exists a significant amount of work done in this field via the Internet and brochures, and an app would draw on these pre-existing sources to help reach a broader audience and make the information more accessible.

10. Legal Assistance Finder for the state of Washington

The Legal Assistance Finder app provides contact information and website links for legal aid and other issue specific organizations around the state. There exists a significant amount of issue specific organizations like the Northwest Justice Project, ACLU of Washington, the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence just to name a few. This app would help get those people that need assistance get in touch with the organization that can help them the most. There would also be a general directory that would be broken down by either issue or location.

I have started playing Magic the Gathering again with thanks to Marguerite (an amazing gaming partner) and Gwen.  I use to play in High School and 4 of my first 8 jobs involved MTG in some way.  It is a great game that teaches strategic skills, focus, attention to detail, complex rules and planning.  Many of my MTG playing high school friends have not surprisingly went into the law, reading the comprehensive rules is not far removed from reading legal codes.  I have left the game twice, once when Hasbro bought out WOTC (they closed the retail store I managed for them in PDX)  and again when I went to law school. Gwen has started playing and loves it. She went 3-1 in a pauper tournament and likes the social aspect of EDH.  She is getting into game and focusing while learning new strategies and planning out ways to win.

I am very happy to have returned to the game! I am mostly playing EDH a casual format with an occasional legacy or standard tournament.  My favorite part of the game is deck building, followed by competitive play.  It is such a different game then chess, a computer can not tell you right plays yet, because the rules and mechanics change so quickly.

If you want to follow my recent fun in MTG check out:

Tappedout.net Deck lists: Rain of Dragons, Super ESP, & Wild Maverick

YouTube: MythicMTGTech

PS If I had not gone to law school and keep all my MTG Cards (I had 40 black board duals + a set of power in beta/alpha with a few unlimited spares) I would have enough money for a house, instead of 200K in student loans. I might not have made the right choice there… I love my legal techie job just not the debt.

I am excited to announce that the ATJ Board filed comments last night in support of the FCC’s digital literacy training program.  I would like to thank Andrew Lee, David Keyes, Lassana Magassa and Hon. Donald Horowitz (ret.) for a lot of hard work on the comments especially given the very short deadline.  Thanks!

Using the Tech Principles to Inform the FCC’s Digital Literacy Training Funding Program

Although the ATJ Technology Principles were designed around the needs and goals of the justice system, they have application in all situations where technology is used to empower people. The FCC recently released a proposed rule which included, among other things, the use of federal funds to promote digital literacy training for low-income Americans. Such training would enhance the availability of broadband Internet services by teaching individuals about the benefits of such services, and how to effectively use the resources that the Internet can provide.

The Washington State ATJ Board, through our own activities and in partnership with others, have been involved in a number of projects that seek to enhance the public’s ability to use and benefit from broadband Internet access. That being the case, we were very pleased to submit comments in support of the FCC’s proposal. Because the FCC’s proposed funding program touches upon the fundamental issues of equal and universal access that underlie the Technology Principles, we also set forth three basic guidelines, derived from the Principles, that we believe should inform the distribution and use of funds. In short, funds should be used in a manner that:

1. Enhances access to broadband services;
2. Maximizes public awareness and use; and
3. Promotes the creation of, and adherence to, best practices guidelines.

In the modern world, universal access to broadband Internet service is more or less a prerequisite of equal access to justice. In seeking the latter, we must support and encourage the former. The ATJ Technology Principles represent a specific application, to the justice system, of general principles that inform the effective, efficient, and egalitarian proliferation of technological advances throughout society. We are excited to see the FCC working towards universal access to broadband for all Americans, which we believe will increase inclusiveness and fairness in society, and help bring about a higher quality of life for all.

I am teaching again at Seattle University Law and University of Washington’s Information School again.  Both classes have started publicly blogging over current events and the course subject matter.  The student perspectives are interesting to me as I learn something new as a professor from more then half the posts.

Information Privacy law blog – 2L/3L contributors, strong focus on new technology and privacy torts. Seattle University Law

Social Use of Information – Librarian Student Blog - UW’s Information School