Ed Felten’s Freedom to Tinker has a bit on the recent Treasury Department ruling in favor of IEEE regarding U.S. restrictions in place against copy-editing and publishing scientific papers whose authors come from countries under US trade embargoes. IEEE had been working the issue with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for about a year before receiving the favorable ruling. IEEE had stopped providing some services to its members in embargoed countries while it sought exemption from the trade rules. The Treasury Department’s decision means IEEE can resume peer-reviewing, editing, and publishing scholarly works from its members in embargoed countries such as Iran and Cuba.
Here’s the press release (pdf, 56kb) from IEEE.
In response to the dire funding situation for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Labs program in FY 2004 and beyond, CRA and US ACM’s Public Policy Committee have joined in a letter to leaders in Congress calling for increased support in the FY 2005 appropriations process.
Among the labs most likely impacted by the cuts — cuts enacted as part of the FY 2004 Omnibus Appropriations bill passed in January — is NIST’s Computer Security Division, which has played a historic role in computer security by conducting security research on emerging technologies, promoting security assessment techniques, providing security management and guidance, and facilitating a greater awareness of the need for security.
The extended entry below has the full letter, or you can download a PDF version here (335k).
GrepLaw, run by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, has an interview with CRA board member Gene Spafford (“Spaf”), on what it’s like to testify before Congress, the current spate of virus and worm attacks, his favorite operating systems, and his suggested reading list for “geeky legal types who want to become involved in the prevention, investigation, or prosecution of computer-related crimes.”
From the CCC Blog
- DARPA Issues PERFECT Solicitation Erwin Gianchandani
- Microsoft Announces New Policy-Focused Internship Program Erwin Gianchandani
- NAE Elects its Class of 2012 Erwin Gianchandani
- NIST to Fund Pilot Projects Advancing Trusted Identities Erwin Gianchandani