Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power
Sandra Braman
MIT Press
569 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0262513241
In Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power, Sandra Braman presents a wealth of information on perspectives of viewing, interpreting, and managing information policy. Her central thesis is that the United States is evolving from a bureaucratic welfare state into an information state and that this transformation is having negative impacts on citizen interests. Braman details the dynamics of this shift over 500 pages of legal, social, and political analysis all through the frame of information policy as an avenue of power in historical and modern terms. At its base, information is the precursor to power and Change of State makes it clear that information policy is truly the politics of modern power. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: administration, Book Review, braman, change of state, information policy, law
This analysis will be in response to the http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080903/NEWS/809030309/1350&title=Getting_access__one_document_at_a_time article that covered the copyrighting of regulations and laws.
In this article, Carl Malamud, has decided to take on the state of California and challenge the state’s assertion that all of its regulation and laws are copyright and thus subject to constraints on distribution and access. His claim is that public laws cannot be copyright and that by making access to regulations and laws open and easier to retrieve, it spurs innovation and new means of access and search capabilities. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: copyright, law, norms
Slobogin, C. (2007). Privacy at Risk: The New Government Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment. University Of Chicago Press.
In America today, privacy is slowly becoming a fleeting memory. After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, fear has become the fuel by which the Bush Administration has enacted some of the most far-reaching legislative acts to retract privacy protection in this country. From the USA PATRIOT Act to warrant-less wiretapping, the concept and protections of privacy have taken a backseat to the political interests of the state.
Traditionally, the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution has provided a measure of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; and by judicial interpretation, a right to personal privacy against government intrusion. Ever since Katz v. United States in 1967, the Fourth Amendment has served as the yardstick for measuring the protection of personal privacy. However, recent measures of political and security related importance have belittled the citizen’s right to privacy in a variety of settings. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Amendment, freedom, government, Internet, intrusion, invasion, justification, law, legitimacy, privacy, Slobogin, surveillance, technology
Truth and fact are two words that people often use interchangeably. In many cases, this interplay of words means little. Truth is often fact just as fact is often truth. But there are subtleties to the meanings of these two words that escape most people. While many are fine eschewing such subtle distinctions, I posit that the disregard of these distinctions enables the prejudicial bias so rampant in our government and legal system. Let me first begin with the true distinction between truth and fact. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: fact, law, truth
