Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!)

Protecting your intellectual property at home and abroad

Growing global trade in pirated and counterfeit goods threatens America's innovation economy, the competitiveness of our leading companies and small manufacturers, and the livelihoods of their workers. Bogus products - from CDs, DVDs, software and watches to electronic equipment, clothing, processed foods, consumer products, and auto parts - are estimated to account for up to seven percent of global trade and cost legitimate rights holders around the world billions of dollars annually.

Developed over the last year, the Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) is the most comprehensive initiative ever advanced to smash the criminal networks that traffic in fakes, stop trade in pirated and counterfeit goods at America's borders, block bogus goods around the world, and help small businesses secure and enforce their rights in overseas markets. STOP! underscores the Administration's continuing commitment to level the playing field for American businesses and workers. And it builds on the Administration's solid track record of real results in combating global piracy and counterfeiting.

www.stopfakes.gov

Supreme Court

For questions about the Supreme Court appointment the recent (July 6) CRS update on the SC Appointment Process will come in handy. The July 20 issue of Al's Morning Meeting also contains interesting tidbits for people whose focus is on the SC these days.

E-Podunk

e-Podunk is celebrating its 5th anniversary, a good occassion to revisit this useful site. From the "about us" section: "ePodunk provides in-depth information about more than 25,000 communities around the country, from Manhattan to Los Angeles, Pottstown to Podunk. Our listings also include geocoded information about thousands of parks, museums, historic sites, colleges, schools and other places across America."

Blog Software Comparison Chart

Software Comparison Chart may be found here:
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm

Free Legal Handouts from the American Association of Law Libraries Professional Meeting

A great variety of free quality legal handouts available here, from AALL.

http://programmaterials.aallnet.org/download_step1.asp

Posted by Stephen Perry, IRO, PAS Buenos Aires

How to Monitor Federal Legislation

From the LLRX Web Site:

http://www.llrx.com/congress/legislativemonitoring.htm

Currently in Congress 1 - 15 July 2005

The latest issue of Currently in Congress is available on the U.S. Mission to South Africa's IRC webpage: http://pretoria.usembassy.gov/wwwhic00.html

Highlights: Answer Africa's Call Act, to implement measures recommended in the Commission for Africa; a resolution condemning the London bombings; a bill to reduce and prevent debris in our ocean's which threaten marine life and navigation safety; improving infrastructure and education for technology in the nation's minority institutions of higher education; a resolution honoring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who recently retired from the Supreme Court bench; and of course appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 06.

Hearings include a review of the US relationship with the WTO, North Korean nuclear negotiations, native american land claims in New York, small business development centers, the national security implications of the possible merger between the China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Unocal, and money laundering in the Middle East.

Previous issues (including 15-30 June which wasn't posted to this blog) are archived on the website.

Pew Report on Islamic Extremism

Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics

Concerns about Islamic extremism, widespread in the West even before this month's terrorist attacks in London, are shared to a considerable degree by the publics in several predominantly Muslim nations, most notably Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia. Most Muslim publics are also expressing less support for acts of terrorism in defense of Islam and less confidence in Osama bin Laden.

Yet, the latest survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted this spring among more than 17,000 people in 17 countries, finds that Muslim and non-Muslim publics have very different attitudes with regard to the impact of Islam on their countries.

While publics in predominantly Muslim countries voice concerns that Islamic extremism can lead to violence, fewer personal freedoms, internal divisions, and retarded economic development, the balance of opinion is that Islam is playing a larger political role in their nations, and most welcome that development. Turkey is a clear exception: there the public is divided about the desirability of a larger political role for Islam. [...]

Finding people on the web

http://www.searchsystems.net/ a good search engine for finding people in public databases in the U.S. Most searches are free of charge.

news.myway.com

news.myway.com draws on AP, Reuters, New York Times, CBS, MSNBC,USA TODAY, and FOX News to provide an attractive ad-free interface to current news. Stories can be displayed by source or by topic. It's a useful one-stop site for assembling news compilations for high level visits, etc.

2005 SLA POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS FROM SLA CONFERENCE, TORONTO

URL for access to these POWERPOINTS is:

http://www.sla.org/content/Events/confpresentations/05confpresent.cfm

Powerpoints include Money Laundering, International Business, Best of the Web, etc.

Stephen Perry, IRO, BUENOS AIRES

FROM FREEPINT: EXPLANATION OF GOOGLE ANSWERS

TIPS ARTICLE http://www.freepint.com/issues/300605.htm#tips
"An Insider's View of Google Answers" By David Sarokin Somewhere in the world is a person who wants ... no, needs! ... some obscure piece of information. Perhaps it's the number of Cessna 152s registered in the US; a transcript from a WWII war crimes trial; or details about the annual wheat harvest in Iran. Information that they cannot find, but that I can. The challenge is, how can we find one another? Amazingly, it's not that hard. The questioner simply states the question, offers a fee for an answer, and -- if the fee is reasonable -- the deal is done.
Article at: http://www.freepint.com/issues/300605.htm#tips

Roubini Global Economics Monitor

The note below from Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Global Economics was forwarded to me - the RGE website, www.rgemonitor.com is impressive! (Roubini's note:)"Following the tragic terrorist attacks in London today RGE Monitor (www.rgemonitor.com) is providing continuous and extensive coverage of the Economic and Financial Implications of Terrorism with up to the minute news, research, commentary and analysis on the economic and financial implications of terrorism. Our coverage also includes related coverage such as the debate on the Causes and Preventive Strategies of Terrorism (http://www.rgemonitor.com/151) where we aggregate the best thinking on this crucial topic.

Google Maps and gCensus

Google maps is an amazing resource: double click on the area you're interested in to select it (ie. center it) and use the slide or the plus/minus icons to zoom to the desired level of detail. To look at adjacent areas, just drag the map the way you would a paper map across a table top! Jimmy Palmer's gcensus.com has taken the Google map technology a step further and added U.S. Census data, all the way down to the block level.

Hudson Institute on U.S. Aid

Carol Adelman et al. of the Hudson Institute recently released a white paper,
America's Total Economic Engagement with the Developing World , that addresses aspects of American generosity often overlooked by critics who measure aid solely in terms of Official Development Assistance(ODA)as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI). From the Hudson Institute's June 29 announcement:

Hudson Institute released new private international giving numbers today in a white paper, "America's Total Economic Engagement with the Developing World," by Dr. Carol Adelman, Mr. Jeremiah Norris and Ms. Jeanne Weicher. Updating their research on American generosity, the authors found at least $62.1 billion in U.S. private donations to developing countries in 2003, the last year numbers are available. This philanthropy, from U.S. foundations, corporations, non-profits and volunteerism, universities and colleges, religious organizations and individuals is over three and one-half times U.S. Official Development Assistance (ODA) of $16.3 billion.

Watching America with RSS feed

Watching America, which was described here in March of this year, now also offers an RSS feed

GPO Access and Thomas

(excerpted from LLRX)"The Government Domain: GPO Access and THOMAS for Legislative Research
Peggy Garvin compares and contrasts the features and content of these two resources, to assist researchers in determining which to use for specific tasks."