Polygon, the Dancing Bear

Occasional notes on politics, history, technology, architecture,
and the life of a county clerk

2002:
May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2003:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2004:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2005:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2006:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2007:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2008:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July

Current entries

Friday, January 30, 2004, 1:26 am

Who owns facts? A very worrisome development in Washington: the U.S. House Judiciary Committee approved and sent to the House floor a bill which is claimed to "curb database copying".

The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act of 2003 would make it possible for facts to be "owned". Disclose owned facts, and face a federal lawsuit from the "fact owner".

Previously, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the 1991 decision Feist v. Rural Telephone, had declared that facts are not copyrightable. This new legislation is an attempt to overturn the Feist decision.

My Political Graveyard web site has a link to the Feist ruling at the bottom of every page. If facts become property, compilations like mine will be placed in severe jeopardy.

For example, I have found many politician birthdates and birthplaces in Marquis Who's Who publications. Under this law, Marquis would own that information, and be entitled to sue me for damages. Moreover, while the suit is pending, they could seize ("impound") all my computers.

The bill is opposed not only by the American Library Association, the National Academy of Sciences, and the ACLU, but by Amazon.com, AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Google, Yahoo, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

However, the combined effort of these organizations (the NetCoalition) was not sufficient to educate the committee on the costs and risks of this idea.

In support of the bill are database and software firms, including the owners of Lexis/Nexis.

The Association for Computing Machinery is the leading organization of computer professionals. Currently they're polling the membership on whether to take a stand against the legislation. The following comes from that page:

It is common practice in science, education, government, and business to create data collections and make them available for others to use. Under current US law, once data and information are distributed to the public, they enter into the public domain. Researchers and consumers are then free to reuse them in countless ways.

Some commercial interests are concerned that their data collections will be used contrary to their interests, and are proposing changes to US law that would create new ownership rights in a wide variety of the data and information collected and contained in online databases. They suggest that the current array of existing US laws are inadequate in that they fail to provide protection from acts of unauthorized uses of data contained in databases.

A diverse coalition of database producers and users (the NetCoalition) opposes the broad legislative effort to expand legal protections for collections of data. They have concluded that the proposed legislation will lead to the growing monopolization of the marketplace for information, threatening the freedom individuals have to search, gather and exchange information over the Internet.

The bill, H.R. 3261, was reported out by the House Judiciary Committee on January 21, by a vote of 16 to 7. The sponsors are Howard Coble (R-NC), Lamar Smith (TX), James C. Greenwood (PA), F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Michael R. Turner (OH), William D. Delahunt (MA), David L. Hobson (OH), W. J. (Billy) Tauzin (LA), Robert Wexler (FL), and Rob Portman (OH).

Many thanks to Declan McCullagh for his reporting on this and related issues.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum — Comments

Friday, January 30, 2004, 1:05 am

Between "would" and "will". Brian and Murph both point to an interesting essay by Clay Shirky, Is Social Software Bad for the Dean Campaign?.

"Would you vote for Howard Dean?" and "Will you vote for Howard Dean?” are two different questions, and it may be that a lot of people who “would” vote for Dean, in some hypothetical world where you could vote in the same way you can make a political donation on Amazon, didn’t actually vote for him when it meant skipping dinner with friends to drive downtown in the freezing cold and venture into some church basement with people who might prefer some other candidate to Dean.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum — Comments

Thursday, January 29, 2004, 12:33 pm

Hill and Coathooks. A few days ago, my wife and I attended the inaugural concert in the newly renovated Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan. Designed by Albert Kahn and built in 1913, it is often compared to Carnegie Hall and other famous venues.

The renovation architects were Quinn Evans of Ann Arbor, a firm which includes friends of mine.

A principal charge to the renovators was to increase the supply of toilets in the building, especially for women. And indeed, in lots of unexpected corners, there are restrooms now. For example, the grand series of five entry doors across the front was shortened, with the leftmost and rightmost replaced (on the facade) by brass dummies; behind the dummies are now bathrooms.

And the style of all these new bathrooms is remarkably like the 1913 originals, with period fittings and marble partitions between the stalls. Not Napoleon Gray (a now-unavailable marble which was often used in early 20th century bathrooms), but I don't think the originals were Napoleon Gray.

One criticism of the new bathrooms I heard from men and women alike: the lack of coat hooks in the stalls. Some of those complaining blamed the absence of coat hooks on what they assumed to be a misguided concern for historical accuracy.

But I can't imagine that the originals were without coat hooks. Of course, over the years since 1913, undoubtedly the original coat hooks were systematically broken or stolen by vandals, as they are in most public toilet facilities — at least in those designated for use by men.

I'm not sure why vandals are so angered by the presence of bathroom coat hooks. Nonetheless, the audiences who attend concerts at Hill these days seem very well behaved. To leave out the bathroom coat hooks is a pre-emptive surrender to vandals who may not actually exist in this population.

I was urged to point out to the architects that men's dress suits often involve suspenders, so that one must remove one's jacket (and hang it where?) before lowering the pants. I am also told that women sometimes face a similar clothing problem. Moreover, women typically come into bathroom stalls armed with shoulder strap purses, and prefer not to set them on the floor.

So, both genders wish for coat hooks in bathroom stalls at Hill Auditorium.

Update, Friday, January 30: Architect Ilene Tyler of Quinn Evans responds as follows:

Coat hooks, schmoat hooks! Goodness gracious! If we hadn't solved some of the bigger problems, then I would be responding to things like, "why can't I open the stall door past the toilet?" and "why aren't there any Men's toilets on the main floor?" and "where is the coat check room?" etc. There are some things that just didn't happen. But, hey, the acoustics are excellent, the colors and lighting are breathtaking, and it is comfortable at the upper reaches of the upper balcony. Annual Folk Festival this weekend should be lots of fun, can't wait! Larry, go pick on some other budget-crunched theater...and I'll pass along your comments, as appropriate, and let you know if I get a definitive answer.

New Flash!!!

Coat hooks are being installed this week. They will be "wardrobe hooks" mounted on the marble between the stalls. However, these are being added by request, as the original Hill did not have hooks; they relied on the coat check, which we have indeed lost to providing more toilet rooms, etc.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum — Comments

Thursday, January 29, 2004, 12:03 pm

"Doorbell heterogeneity." As someone who has done extensive door-to-door political campaigning, this intriguing phrase brings many images to mind. Not only is every house different, every door different, but every doorbell is different.

Sometimes the muffled sound of the doorbell, as heard on the front porch or stoop, gives a hint of the resident's personality: melodic chimes, ethereal bong, ringing schoolbell, brisk buzzer. Or perhaps it says more about the ambitions of the builder or developer who shaped the streets and houses to express a marketable concept, a New Neighborhood (at the time) as inventive in its way as a New Town.

So you can imagine that my interest was piqued when I received an email message this morning with the Subject: "doorbell heterogeneity".

Hmmm, I wondered, a campaign volunteer, or a weary political activist? Someone from a building preservation list contacting me backchannel? An Ann Arbor historic district issue?

Alas, none of these. It was only an ad for "Gewnejric Vijagxra".

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum — Comments

Sunday, January 25, 2004, 11:39 pm

Joe-jobbed. I regret to announce that I have been "joe-jobbed".

I didn't know before this that there was a word for it.

What happened is that a spammer forged my email address in the From: and Reply-To: lines of thousands of fraudulent spam messages advertising some product which is claimed to increase the size of a body part.

Hence, my email has been deluged with vast quantities of bounce and rejection notices. The first wave subsided, and I thought I was okay, but then the second and much larger wave of spam bounces arrived.

But, I am not alone in this. Like I said, there's even a word for it. Apparently millions of people have been joe-jobbed; I'm a bit late to the party.

The spammer's web sites are registered in Kuala Lumpur. The actual messages are routed through hijacked machines, ordinary people's DSL or cable-internet connected computers which have been remotely taken over to act as spam forwarding centers. Obviously the spammer has access to hundreds of these, thanks to the insecurity of MS-Windows and the carelessness of most users.

And ISPs like Verizon and Adelphia and RoadRunner and Bellsouth — all of whom have hundreds of customers unknowingly forwarding spam which claims to be from me — are apparently doing nothing about this. My complaints to ISPs were answered (if at all) by form letters; in once case, the canned text advised me to wait 5 days for the spam bounces to subside. But it's been 18 days, and the bounces keep pouring in.

What makes me the most angry are quantities of rejection messages from supposedly reputable spam-filter companies. They know the message is spam; they know the From: line is forged. So why the hell are they sending nastygrams to uninvolved third parties like me?

And I have no recourse whatever against any of those resposible. Indeed, people tell me that I should consider myself lucky not to be getting hundreds of millions of bounce messages, overloading my connection and the server.

Well, I suppose if I was extremely litigious and had a lot of time and resources to hassle people, I could follow RIAA's lead. I could serve subpoenas on Verizon, Bellsouth, Comcast, and all the rest, listing IP addresses and demanding to know whose machines those were. After all, presumably the owners of those computers are negligently ignoring rudimentary computer security, and are legally responsible for whatever vile slanders their computers are pumping out across the world.

But there are serious issues of proof. All I have as evidence are the bounce messages, which by definition never reached anyone else. And everything on my server is under my control and hence suspect as evidence in the eyes of a court.

And if anything I did served to annoy the spammer himself, then I would be joe-jobbed but good, with hundreds of millions of bounces instead of thousands.

Meanwhile, my domain name will now be added to spam blacklists, so that my own outgoing mail will be blocked in many places as presumed spam.

This kind of thing (not to mention ordinary spam and viruses) is going to destroy email as a useable communications medium.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum — Comments

Sunday, January 4, 2004, 11:00 pm

A Political Announcement. It's an election year, and I have been induced to re-enter the political fray. Here it is:

I will be a candidate for Washtenaw County Clerk/Register of Deeds, in the Democratic primary on August 3rd, and the general election November 2nd.

County Clerk and Register of Deeds have different responsibilities, and are two distinct positions in most Michigan counties; in Washtenaw County they have been merged into a single elected position.

The Clerk-Register is the chief local election official, is custodian of a vast array of public records from birth certificates to mortgages, and mediates a lot of the public's dealings with the local court system.

I have a lot of interest and background in each of these areas. I have worked in local government as a county commissioner in two different counties. In Ingham County, I was chair of the Personnel Committee, which directed labor negotiations and arbitrated grievances for the county's 800-plus employees, and of the Administrative Services Committee, which handled budget and policy issues for the County Clerk and Register of Deeds. I have also been a member of many appointed boards and as a director and officer of several nonprofit corporations.

As an election inspector (at the city, township, and county level), poll challenger, candidate, elected official, and attorney in recounts, I have participated in nearly every aspect of the election process, and I have written articles and given speeches about problems in election administration, voter authentication, tabulation, and voting systems (see, most recently, this op-ed piece). I have worked with deeds and other land records literally since boyhood. I'm an attorney. Plus, I have a good deal of background in computer databases, networks, and security, all relevant to the work of the Clerk-Register.

Another requirement for this job is a determination to provide excellent customer service. Dealing with the public day after day is not easy work. The inevitable hassles and headaches tend to create a defensive, "customer-is-the-enemy" mindset in even the most well-intentioned organizations. That tendency must constantly be resisted. Washtenaw County's official slogan is "World Class Service": that should mean each and every person who comes to the Clerk-Register's office is treated with the utmost courtesy and respect. To achieve this requires an ongoing commitment, including adequate training and active support for front-line staff.

Democracy is simple in theory, but administering elections is a complex process. Every step must be completed with care, and handled in such a way that all sides are fully satisfied with the fairness, efficiency, security, integrity, and transparency of the entire system.

Among county election officials, the Clerk leads the way on issues from choosing voting technologies to training election workers to coordinating the tabulation and certifying of results. Our next county clerk will implement the new state election laws, which change election scheduling and consolidate authority over local and school elections.

It should be the goal of election administration to be inclusive, to reduce or eliminate barriers to voting. The Clerk should be an advocate for necessary changes to election law to help maximize voter participation.

Similarly, though the final authority rests with the judges, the Clerk administers many aspects of the jury system for local courts, and is in a position to recommend changes to make jury duty as flexible and hassle-free as possible.

The Clerk is elected on a partisan ballot and does handle some partisan issues, including county redistricting and the replacement of other county elected officials when a vacancy occurs. The county is now predominantly Democratic in its partisan preferences, but has not had a Democratic county clerk since 1934.

I have an excellent chance to change that this year. I'm putting together a solid, grassroots campaign, with support from many party and community leaders. Parma Yarkin has agreed to be my treasurer. As far as I know, I'm the only Democrat running. Mine will be a positive campaign; I look forward to many debates or joint appearances with the incumbent.

If you'd like to help out the campaign, I have an immediate need. On Saturday, February 7th, the Michigan Democratic Party will be holding a presidential preference caucus, essentially a party-run presidential primary. Though some will vote on-line, thousands will come to caucus sites (polling places) to cast their votes, and campaigning to them is encouraged.

I'm going to need probably a couple of volunteers at each of 17 caucus sites in Washtenaw County to distribute campaign flyers to voters. Each site is open for six hours, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be an exciting and very political day, and by volunteering, you'll be in the thick of it. If you're interested, let me know via email (see my address at upper right).

Check this blog (and the soon-to-appear campaign web site) for further news.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum.

Comments:

mythago, 1/8/2004: Sadly, I will not be anywhere near Washtenaw County on that day. However, is your campaign taking donations?
Aaron Larson, 1/10/2004: Hey Larry - how about an update? ;-)
Lawrence Kestenbaum, 1/10/2004: What I should probably do is set up a PayPal donation page for the campaign. But we need to open a bank account first ...
mythago, 1/11/2004: *taps foot*
Eric, 1/29/2004: I'll help with your campaign.

Eric Goldberg
http://astrogibs.com/eric/
Aaron Larson, 2/4/2004: How's it coming?
Lawrence Kestenbaum, 2/4/2004: The flyers will be ready at the printers on Friday. The EIN has been obtained for the bank account; we just have to take the forms back to the credit union, probably Thursday. Setting up the PayPal page can happen after the account is open.