Report: SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters

The tech industry is abuzz about SOPA and PIPA, a pair of anti-piracy bills. Here’s why they’re controversial, and how they   would change the digital landscape if they became law.

What is SOPA? SOPA is an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act. It’s a proposed bill that aims to crack down on copyright   infringement by restricting access to sites that host pirated content.

SOPA’s main targets are “rogue” overseas sites like torrent hub The Pirate Bay, which are a trove for illegal downloads of   movies and other digital content.

Content creators have battled against piracy for years — remember Napster? — but it’s hard for U.S. companies to take action   against foreign sites. So SOPA’s goal is to cut off pirate sites’ oxygen by requiring U.S. search engines, advertising networks   and other providers to withhold their services.

That means sites like Google wouldn’t show flagged sites in their search results, and payment processors like eBay’s PayPal   couldn’t transmit funds to them.

Both sides say they agree that protecting content is a worthy goal. But opponents say that the way SOPA is written effectively   promotes censorship and is rife with the potential for unintended consequences.

Silicon Valley woke up and took notice of the implications when SOPA was introduced in the House of Representatives in October.   But its very similar counterpart, PIPA, flew under the radar and was approved by a Senate committee in May. PIPA is now pending   before the full Senate and scheduled for a vote on January 24, though some senators are pushing for a delay.

Isn’t copyright infringement already illegal? Yes. The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act lays out enforcement measures.

Let’s say a YouTube user uploads a copyrighted song. Under the current law, that song’s copyright holders could send a “takedown   notice” to YouTube. YouTube is protected against liability as long as it removes the content within a reasonable timeframe.

When it gets a DMCA warning, YouTube has to notify the user who uploaded the content. That user has the right to file a counter-motion   demonstrating that the content doesn’t infringe on any copyrights. If the two sides keep disagreeing, the issue can go to   court.

The problem with DMCA, critics say, is that it’s useless against overseas sites.

SOPA tackles that by moving up the chain. If you can’t force overseas sites to take down copyrighted work, you can at least   stop U.S. companies from providing their services to those sites. You can also make it harder for U.S. Internet users to find   and access the sites.

But SOPA goes further than DMCA and potentially puts site operators on the hook for content their users upload. A site could   be deemed a SOPA scofflaw if it takes “deliberate actions to avoid confirming a high probability” that its service will be   used for copyright infringement. That kind of swampy language has tech companies spooked.

“YouTube would just go dark immediately,” Google public policy director Bob Boorstin said at a conference last month. “It   couldn’t function.”

Who supports SOPA, and who’s against it? The controversial pair of bills, SOPA and PIPA, have sparked an all-out war between   Hollywood and Silicon Valley. In general, media companies have united in favor of them, while tech’s big names are throwing   their might into opposing them.

SOPA’s supporters — which include CNNMoney parent company Time Warner, plus groups such as the Motion Picture Association   of America — say that online piracy leads to U.S. job losses because it deprives content creators of income.

The bill’s supporters dismiss accusations of censorship, saying that the legislation is meant to revamp a broken system that   doesn’t adequately prevent criminal behavior.

But SOPA’s critics say the bill’s backers don’t understand the Internet’s architecture, and therefore don’t appreciate the   implications of the legislation they’re considering.

In November, tech behemoths including Google and Facebook lodged a formal complaint letter to lawmakers, saying: “We support   the bills’ stated goals. Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies   to new uncertain liabilities [and] mandates that would require monitoring of web sites.”

Where does the bill stand now? SOPA was once expected to sail quickly through committee approval in the House. But after a   massive pushback from tech companies and their supporters, it’s being extensively reworked. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor   has said SOPA won’t come up for a committee vote as-is.

That means the bill could change a lot from day to day — and one major tenet of the original legislation has already been   removed. As originally written, SOPA would have required Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to sites that law   enforcement officials deemed pirate sites.

But the White House said its analysis of the original legislation’s technical provisions “suggests that they pose a real risk   to cybersecurity,” and that it wouldn’t support legislation that mandates manipulating the Internet’s technical architecture.

The White House’s statement came shortly after one of SOPA’s lead sponsors, Texas Republican Lamar Smith, agreed to remove   SOPA’s domain-blocking provisions.

Smith’s office says it’s still planning to work through amendments to the bill, but his representatives declined to estimate   how long that will take. They plan to resume revision of the bill in February.

A markeup process once expected to take days is now likely to last for months. As the outcry around SOPA grows louder, the   bill’s momentum in Congress appears to be fading.

What are the alternatives? One option, of course, is that Congress does nothing and leaves the current laws in place.

Alternative legislation has also been proposed. A bipartisan group of House members has begun drafting the Online Protection   and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN), a compromise bill.

Among other differences, OPEN offers more protection than SOPA would to sites accused of hosting pirated content. It also   beefs up the enforcement process. It would allow digital rights holders to bring cases before the U.S. International Trade   Commission (ITC), an independent agency that handles trademark infringement and other trade disputes.

OPEN’s backers have posted the draft legislation online and invited the Web community to comment on and revise the proposal.

SOPA supporters counter that the ITC doesn’t have the resources for digital enforcement, and that giving it those resources   would be too expensive.

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Report: NYPD, Feds Testing Gun-Scanning Technology, But Civil Liberties Groups Up In Arms

Terahertz Imaging Detection Out To Detect Illegal Concealed Weapons

The NYPD and Department of Defense are working together testing Terahertz Imaging Detection, a new way to get concealed illegal weapons off the streets. (Photo courtesy: NYPD)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The NYPD is stepping up their war against illegal guns, with a new tool that could detect weapons on someone as they walk down the street.

But is it violating your right to privacy?

Police, along with the U.S. Department of Defense, are researching new technology in a scanner placed on police vehicles that can detect concealed weapons.

“You could use it at a specific event. You could use it at a shooting-prone location,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS 2′s Hazel Sanchez on Tuesday.

It’s called Terahertz Imaging Detection. It measures the energy radiating from a body up to 16 feet away, and can detect anything blocking it, like a gun.

And the idea is causing quite the uproar on both sides of the privacy issue.

“I think it’s good. People will be safer and it will be a safer environment,” Jessica Ramos said.

“If it’s going to make us safer as citizens I’m okay with that,” said Lori Sampson of Lake Ronkonkoma.

“I think it’s all about invading people’s lives more and more and more,” Antonio Gabriel said.

“It’s definitely a privacy issue, but it’s for our safety. So it’s just one of those things, a double-edged sword,” added Clarence Moore of Union, N.J.

Police Commissioner Kelly said the scanner would only be used in reasonably suspicious circumstances and could cut down on the number of stop-and-frisks on the street.

But the New York Civil Liberties Union is raising a red flag.

“It’s worrisome. It implicates privacy, the right to walk down the street without being subjected to a virtual pat-down by the Police Department when you’re doing nothing wrong,” the NYCLU’s Donna Lieberman said.

“We have involved our attorneys as we go forward with this issue. We think it’s a very positive development,” Kelly said

People on the street have differing opinions on the price they’d be willing to pay for safety.

“There are a lot of cameras already here, so as people walk they’re being filmed. And most of the time they don’t know it,” said Jennifer Bailly of Jersey City.

“If they search you, you’re not giving consent, so they can do what they want, meaning they can use that as an excuse to search you for other means. I don’t think that’s constitutional at all,” Devan Thomas said.

“I don’t agree with it. I have the belief that if you forgoe some of your freedom then it’s not freedom at all,” added Erwin Morales of Hoboken.

“I think it’s good. I think if someone has something to hide and they’re going to worry about it, who cares?” Robert McDougall added.

The Department of Defense is also researching the Terahertz technology to detect suicide bombers wearing explosives.

Do you think this is an invasion of privacy? Or are you in favor of relinquishing some freedoms to keep the streets safe? Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below. …

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Report: Google Joins Online SOPA Protest

WASHINGTON — Google will join thousands of tech activists, entrepreneurs and corporations on Wednesday in protesting the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial bill that has generated national outrage among Internet experts.

On Wednesday, more than 7,000 websites are expected to voluntarily “go dark,” by blocking access to their content to protest the bill, according to organizers of SOPAStrike.com. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring the measure to a vote next week. Some of the biggest names on the Internet plan to participate in the blackout, including Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit and WordPress. On Tuesday, Google stopped short of vowing to take down its popular search engine, but said it would change its home page to show solidarity with protesters.

“Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” said a Google spokeswoman in a written statement provided to HuffPost. “So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page.”

While Hollywood movie studios and major record labels have lauded the bill as a robust effort to crack down on online copyright violations, Internet experts maintain that the tools proposed for the legislation would hamper efforts to improve online security and threaten the basic functioning of the Internet.

Tech companies have been raising objections to the bill since the Senate version, the Protect IP Act, was introduced last spring.  Free speech experts also argue that the measure’s basic anti-piracy tool would risk seriously violating the First Amendment in allowing the government and private companies to shut down entire websites accused of piracy without a trial or even a traditional court hearing.

In addition to the Web protests, thousands of New York City tech activists and entrepreneurs are preparing for a Wednesday protest outside the Manhattan offices of Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kristin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Both Schumer and Gillibrand formally support Protect IP. Increasingly in recent years the Big Apple has become an active hub for tech firms, with many new companies and their venture capital supporters locating there rather than Silicon Valley.

The anti-SOPA event is being organized NY Tech Meetup, a trade group representing all aspects of the New York technology community. The group is expecting more than 1,500 members and speakers from leading tech companies to show up at the Wednesday protest, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m, at the senators’ Manhattan offices, at 780 Third Ave.

“We’re gonna have people get on a soapbox with a bullhorn,” NY Tech Meetup Chairman Andrew Rasiej told HuffPost. “We’re not in a theater; we’re in the street protesting.”

The White House announced on Saturday its formal opposition to SOPA and Protect IP, setting off a legislative scramble on Capitol Hill as lawmakers on both sides of the issue sought to shore up support ahead of the Senate vote.

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Report: Kip Smith, Sponsor Of Georgia Bill Requiring Drug Testing For Welfare Recipients, Arrested For DUI

Kip Smith, a Republican state congressman from Georgia and sponsor of a bill that would have submitted all welfare recipients to random drug testing, was arrested Friday night for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Smith was pulled over after running a red light on his way home from a restaurant, Atlanta’s Channel 2 Action News reports:

The officer said when he walked up to Smith’s car he could smell the odor of alcohol coming from the car and then started asking Smith some questions.Smith told the officer he was at Hal’s restaurant where he [had] a single beer and it had been 45 minutes since he had the last drink.

The officer said Smith first refused to take a breathalyzer test, but once it was explained to him that he would be arrested he started the sobriety test, which he had trouble completing.

According to a police report, Smith first blew a .091, and later a .100 and a .099, all above the legal limit of .08. He also failed a “walk-and-turn” test and a “one-leg-stand” field sobriety test.

As Think Progress points out, Smith is a sponsor of a bill that would implement random yearly drug testing for welfare recipients. According to the bill, anyone who failed such test would be cut off from public assistance. In response to this proposal, Democratic state Rep. Scott Holcomb submitted legislation that would instead require all state lawmakers to undergo random drug testing.

Smith said over the weekend that he made a poor decision.

“Mistakes were made and I take full responsibility for them,” Smith said, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. “I understand there are consequences, and there’s no excuse.”

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said in a statement to Channel 2 Action News that he would be examining the incident.

“This is the first the Speaker has heard of this deeply troubling situation involving Rep. Kip Smith,” the statement read. “DUI is a very serious charge. The Speaker will look into the matter and gather the facts before offering any further comment on this situation.”

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Report: Apple Event: Ebook-Publishing Announcement Coming January 19?

Another mysterious Apple event, another round of rumors leading up to the big day.

On Thursday, at 10 A.M., Apple will host an event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City — that much we know for sure, as the invitations have been sent. The well-sourced John Paczkowski of All Things Digital hears that the event could cover publishing, specifically digital textbook publishing for the iPad (what Paczkowski called “Jobs’ iTextbook Vision”); TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis heard largely the same, adding that her source expects “improvements to the iBooks platform.”

Since those two rumors broke at the beginning of the new year, much has been quiet on the Apple front. And for those wondering, no one thinks that Apple is going to announce either the iPad 3 or the Apple television this Thursday. Though both are projects are believed to be in the works, neither piece of shiny new hardware is expected to be unveiled this week.

So what, specifically, can we expect? Well, a new pair of rumors from Ars Technica’s Chris Foresman claims that the event will indeed center on so-called iTextbook publishing, and that the big Apple event in the Big Apple will center around a new tool for publishers to easily create interactive digital textbooks for the iPad and iPhone, what Foresman dubbed a “GarageBand for textbooks.” (GarageBand is a popular desktop and iOS application from Apple that allows both amateur and professional musicians to record, mix, and produce audio in a studio-like software suite).

Textbooks had long been a pet project of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, one of the world’s most famous college dropouts, who told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had always wanted to disrupt the textbook market. The consensus seems to be that Jobs’ vision for what that digital destruction might look like will be unveiled on January 19 in New York, as Apple’s new iTextbook creation tool could help authors large and small pen textbooks optimized for iOS devices. If the new tool has the impact that Jobs’ envisioned, Apple’s announcement could foretell the end of heavy, expensive textbooks. From Isaacson’s biography, as quoted in Fortune”

He wanted to disrupt the textbook industry and save the spines of spavined students bearing backpacks by creating electronic texts and curriculum material for the iPad.

Many startups, most notably Kno and Inkling, have been attempting to save students’ spines and disrupt the profitable world of textbook publishing for a few years now. Both Kno and Inkling make digitally optimized textbooks available for the iPad and desktop computer; both offer the textbooks at substantially lower prices than they are in print. The two companies, however, take two different routes to publishing: Kno largely leaves the textbook intact, scanning the original textbook in from the print version, while Inkling creates an entirely new textbook optimized with images, audio and video.

What Foresman of Ars Technica is proposing — an application to create digitally optimized textbooks — sounds much like the Inkling method, which sprinkles in three-dimensional graphs and models, relevant video and audio, and interactive quizzes at the ends of chapters. Whatever the new tool looks like, it does not appear that Apple will try to cannibalize the textbook companies’ profits, given that several major publishers are expected to be in attendance. Rather, Apple will simply attempt to succeed where both Kno and Inkling have (thus far) failed, in making digital textbooks a much more widespread, more accepted norm. (Philip Elmer Dewitt of Fortune points out that this goal is not entirely philanthropic on Apple’s part, as making digital textbooks the norm carries with it the effect of selling more iPads).

On January 17, at the site where Apple and Rupert Murdoch announced iPad-optimized newspaper The Daily one year ago, Apple will apparently once again attempt to transform an industry. The world — and a world of spavined students — will be watching.

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Report: Wikipedia Blackout: Jimmy Wales Announces Protest Of SOPA, PIPA On January 18 (UPDATE)

Wikipedia has issued an official statement confirming a planned blackout on January 18. Scroll down for update. Wikipedia has apparently joined the ranks of several high-profile websites that are planning a “blackout” on Wednesday, January 18, in protest of Congress’ proposed anti-piracy legislation. During the blackout period, many web pages will become unavailable and will likely be replaced with information about the protest.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales took to Twitter on Monday to announce that the English-language version of Wikipedia will go dark on Wednesday for 24 hours — from midnight EST on January 18 until midnight EST January 19. He noted in a later tweet that “Final details [are] under consideration but consensus seems to be for ‘full’ rather than ‘soft’ blackout!”

Wednesday’s so-called SOPA Strike was initially proposed by Reddit, which will go dark for 12 hours to protest H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). These bills are designed to punish primarily foreign-based websites found to violate or facilitate violations of U.S. copyrights. Backlash against the bills has been strong, particularly among the online community. Google, eBay, Mozilla, Twitter, Facebook, Huffington Post parent company Aol and other web giants have formally opposed the bills. The popular Cheezburger Network has joined Reddit in committing to a blackout-protest on January 18, as has news blog Boing Boing and several other prominent sites. Community classified ads site Craigslist has also come out recently against the bills but has not officially stated that it will participate in the blackout.

According a tweet posted by @Jimmy_Wales, Jimmy Wales’ official Twitter handle, Wikipedia is planning for its January 18 blackout to affect only en.Wikipedia.org, though, the tweet continued, “the Germans will run a banner, and other languages will make their own decisions.”

A representative for Wikipedia was not immediately available for comment.

On January 14, the White House published a letter voicing concerns about SOPA and PIPA. The letter also stated and that, moving forward, the Obama Administration will work with both opponents and proponents of stopping copyright violations online to pass effective legislation in 2012.

On January 13, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) said SOPA will not reach the House floor until its perceived flaws are addressed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) told MSNBC on Sunday that the Senate will move forward with PIPA in the coming weeks.

Wales has been considering a Wikipedia protest of SOPA since December, when he asked users via his Wiki “talk page” whether the Wikipedia community would support a global blank-out of English-language Wiki pages.

In October, the Italian Wikipedia staged a protest of the Parliament’s so-called “Wiretapping Bill” by taking down all Italian-language encyclopedia entries and replacing them with message about the controversial law. It.Wikipedia.org is Wikipedia’s fifth-largest network, with more than 881,000 articles.

The English Wikipedia, with its nearly 3,850,000 articles, is Wikipedia’s largest Encyclopedia. Jimmy Wales tweeted a comScore estimate that each day 25 million visitors from around the world access English-language Wikipedia pages.

UPDATE 1: Wikipedia users can view proposed designs for “blackout pages,” which may appear in place of normal Wikipedia entries during  the protest on January 18. Take a look at the screen shots (below) to view two of the designs.

LOOK:

LOOK:

UPDATE 2: The English-language version of Wikipedia will go dark at midnight on January 18, in accordance with the opinions of the majority of community members who took place in a debate about protesting Congress’ SOPA and PIPA bills.

From a press release issued by Wikipedia on Monday night:

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

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Report: America Isn’t a Corporation

By PUAL KRUGMAN

“And greed – you mark my words – will not only save Teldar Paper,but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.”

That’s how the fictional Gordon Gekko finished his famous “Greed is good” speech in the 1987 film “Wall Street.” In the movie, Gekko got his comeuppance. But in real life, Gekkoism triumphed, and policy based on the notion that greed is good is a major reason why income has grown so much more rapidly for the richest 1 percent than for the middle class.Today, however, let’s focus on the rest of that sentence, which compares America to a corporation. This, too, is an idea that has been widely accepted. And it’s the main plank of Mitt Romney’s case that he should be president: In effect, he is asserting that what we need to fix our ailing economy is someone who has been successful in business.

In so doing, he has, of course, invited close scrutiny of his business career. And it turns out that there is at least a whiff of Gordon Gekko in his time at Bain Capital, a private equity firm; he was a buyer and seller of businesses, often to the detriment of their employees, rather than someone who ran companies for the long haul. (Also, when will he release his tax returns?) Nor has he helped his credibility by making untenable claims about his role as a “job creator.”

But there’s a deeper problem in the whole notion that what this nation needs is a successful businessman as president: America is not, in fact, a corporation. Making good economic policy isn’t at all like maximizing corporate profits. And businessmen — even great businessmen — do not, in general, have any special insights into what it takes to achieve economic recovery.

Why isn’t a national economy like a corporation? For one thing, there’s no simple bottom line. For another, the economy is vastly more complex than even the largest private company.

Most relevant for our current situation, however, is the point that even giant corporations sell the great bulk of what they produce to other people, not to their own employees — whereas even small countries sell most of what they produce to themselves, and big countries like America are overwhelmingly their own main customers.

Yes, there’s a global economy. But six out of seven American workers are employed in service industries, which are largely insulated from international competition, and even our manufacturers sell much of their production to the domestic market.

And the fact that we mostly sell to ourselves makes an enormous difference when you think about policy.

Consider what happens when a business engages in ruthless cost-cutting. From the point of view of the firm’s owners (though not its workers), the more costs that are cut, the better. Any dollars taken off the cost side of the balance sheet are added to the bottom line.

But the story is very different when a government slashes spending in the face of a depressed economy. Look at Greece, Spain, and Ireland, all of which have adopted harsh austerity policies. In each case, unemployment soared, because cuts in government spending mainly hit domestic producers. And, in each case, the reduction in budget deficits was much less than expected, because tax receipts fell as output and employment collapsed.

Now, to be fair, being a career politician isn’t necessarily a better preparation for managing economic policy than being a businessman. But Mr. Romney is the one claiming that his career makes him especially suited for the presidency. Did I mention that the last businessman to live in the White House was a guy named Herbert Hoover? (Unless you count former President George W. Bush.)

And there’s also the question of whether Mr. Romney understands the difference between running a business and managing an economy.

Like many observers, I was somewhat startled by his latest defense of his record at Bain — namely, that he did the same thing the Obama administration did when it bailed out the auto industry, laying off workers in the process. One might think that Mr. Romney would rather not talk about a highly successful policy that just about everyone in the Republican Party, including him, denounced at the time.

But what really struck me was how Mr. Romney characterized President Obama’s actions: “He did it to try to save the business.” No, he didn’t; he did it to save the industry, and thereby to save jobs that would otherwise have been lost, deepening America’s slump. Does Mr. Romney understand the distinction?

America certainly needs better economic policies than it has right now — and while most of the blame for poor policies belongs to Republicans and their scorched-earth opposition to anything constructive, the president has made some important mistakes. But we’re not going to get better policies if the man sitting in the Oval Office next year sees his job as being that of engineering a leveraged buyout of America Inc.

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Report: Mayor Villaraigosa, Chief Beck Release Gang Reduction Stats

For fourth consecutive year, Summer Night Lights’ neighborhoods experience significant drop in violence and crime

LOS ANGELES – Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck today announced the 2011 results of the City’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) program including a successful 2011 Summer Night Lights (SNL) program resulting in a 35% reduction in gang related Part 1 crimes for all SNL sites.

“In 2008, we changed the face of gang prevention and intervention in this city and launched the Gang Reduction and Youth Development Program,” Mayor Villaraigosa said. “GRYD’s comprehensive strategy represents a sea change in the way we reduce gang violence. Today, the Summer Night Lights has become a crowning achievement of these efforts and a source of pride in some of our most crime-ridden communities.”

The Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development is an initiative to prevent at-risk youth from joining gangs. It intervenes with gang members to help them safely leave the gang life and responds to gang-related crisis situations across the City. Twelve geographic zones—areas with the highest levels of gang violence—are targeted for prevention and intervention services.

The highly innovative GRYD program is designed to prevent and reduce gang violence using research driven tools, law enforcement, and family-focused psychological theories. The comprehensive gang violence reduction strategy has drawn national attention.

“The GRYD program is the cornerstone of our gang crime reduction efforts,” said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck. “If we are to see a significant decrease in gang crime here in Los Angeles in 2012, GRYD will play a pivotal role. GRYD is a model program that combines gang intervention with youth development, in an effort to reduce gang crime and create healthy communities here in LA.”

GRYD partners with the LAPD on several intervention program and activities that builds bridges between the community and law enforcement. In addition, GRYD in collaboration with the Advancement Project oversees LAVITA, the first comprehensive gang intervention academy in the country which provides certification for gang intervention workers.

The Mayor and Chief Beck recently released the City’s 2011 year-end crime statistics showing that overall gang crime dropped 15.2% representing a reduction of nearly 843 gang crimes last year. The LAPD also reported a 9.4% reduction in gang-related shots fired. Violent crime and property crime were also reduced across Los Angeles for the ninth consecutive year.

As part of GRYD’s comprehensive strategy, Summer Night Lights (SNL) keeps City parks open until midnight from Fourth of July weekend through Labor Day weekend. For these nine weeks, SNL provides extended and expanded programming between the hours of 7 PM to midnight, activities for at-risk youth and their families, job opportunities, and a safe place to spend the summer evenings at 32 recreation centers and parks in and around the City’s GRYD zones.

Communities around SNL parks experienced a 35% reduction in gang-related part 1 crime for all SNL locations combined, 35% reduction in gang-related homicides, 43% reduction in aggravated assaults and 55% reduction in shots fired. This past summer, an estimated 774,800 visits were made to the 32 SNL sites combined, an increase of 64,800 visits from 2010. A total of 484,250 meals were served throughout the program at all SNL sites combined.

In addition, over 1,600 jobs were made available in the summer through SNL including 320 Youth Squad members.

CONTACT: Casey Hernandez 213-978-0741

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Report: Draft cyber bill gives DHS controversial authorities

By Jason Miller@jmillerWFED

The draft version of the comprehensive cybersecurity bill could give the Homeland Security Department the ability to take “any lawful action” against contractors if their systems are under attack.Bob Dix, a former staff director for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and now vice president government affairs and critical infrastructure protection for Juniper Networks, said that could mean taking over a vendor’s system that contains federal data.

“There’s some concern about what would be the criteria about that and how it would be the government has the ability under a provision of lawful action to take over a system used by an agency even if it’s owned by a contractor,” Dix said. “I am worried about the notion that suggests the government would have the authority under law to be able to take over systems of contractors if they view them as having vulnerabilities even if only a small percentage of that is government utilization.”

The provision Dix is talking about is in Section 3553of the bill’s Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Reform section.

The draft bill, obtained by Federal News Radio, would give the secretary of DHS the ability to “direct officials of agencies that own, operate, lease or otherwise control an information system, including information systems used or operated by another entity, including contractors, on behalf of a federal agency, to take any lawful action with respect to the operation of such information system for the purpose of protecting that information system from or mitigating a cybersecurity threat.”

Dix said FISMA needs to be updated and several of the changes in the draft bill are good, but this provision goes too far.

Different interpretation

Not everyone reads the provision the same as Dix.

James Lewis, the director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said Dix’s interpretation is a bit extreme.                                                                                                  

James Lewis, director, Technology and Public Policy Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS photo)

                    “I think it’s more they could direct the contractors to take action,” he said. “I see this more of as an ability to direct action than actually assuming control.”

He said bills such as this one must include broad language to be implemented successfully.

“You either can try and define prescriptively every single example and those tend to be unworkable, or you have to settle for phrases such as any lawful action,” Lewis said. “That doesn’t bother me as much. Over time should that authority ever be exercised, they would figure out what that meant. But I think it’s the kind of language that actually points to not taking control of contractor systems. I’m still not sure that would be lawful.”

He added the language also fits in with the larger effort to reinforce DHS’ authorities under FISMA. The Obama administration gave DHSmore authority and responsibility under FISMA in July 2010.

The Senate promised to take up the comprehensive cyber billearly on in the 2012 session. The House has not publicly committed to take up a comprehensive bill.

Senate lawmakers have been trying to update FISMA for the last three years.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) introduced a bill to update the 2002 law in 2008 and held out hope each successive year, but couldn’t get enough traction. Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) introduced a version of the FISMA update in 2010, but again, it got nowhere.

Watson also tried to add a FISMA update to the 2010 Defense Authorization bill. But the provisions were not included in the final law.

Similar to other FISMA reform efforts

The FISMA reform in the latest bill looks similar to other efforts, Lewis said.

It codifies the oversight authority for DHS to issue policies, set standards, training requirements, conduct risk assessments and receive reports on agency compliance.

The reform bill also would update agency and chief information officer responsibilities, including ensuring cybersecurity is integrated with agency strategic and operational planning processes and developing and maintaining a risk management strategy.

Alan Paller, the director of research at the SANS Institute, has been an outspoken critic of the paperwork part of FISMA. He said the continuous monitoring language is most important in the reform bill.                                                                                                  

Alan Paller, director of research, SANS Institute (SANS photo)

                    “I think the key is the report language. There needs to be two or three examples in the report language that comes out with the bill so there is no question,” Paller said. “The key people in this whole thing are the inspectors general. If they misinterpret it so the security people think they are suppose to do one thing and the inspectors general think they are suppose to write reports, which has been happening for the last 10 years, then you will get a lot of wasted reports. The key is the inspectors general understand exactly what was meant for continuous monitoring, meaning automated, online monitoring of every device on the network. If that is in the report language, that is good enough.”

While the provision that could give DHS the ability to take over contractor systems is one controversial piece, it’s what’s in the sectionabout critical infrastructure that could stop the bill in its tracks.

Juniper’s Dix said his and others’ concerns over the critical infrastructure section stem from the government getting too much oversight authority in specific areas. He said one provision would create additional regulatory regimes but not target the real cyber issues, which are the control systems of critical infrastructure providers.

The other area concerns assessing the risk management of critical infrastructure vendors.

“I don’t think that is the role of the government,” Dix said. “I don’t think it’s proper for the government to tell me and my company how best to manage the risk on behalf of my customers, my internal organization and my shareholders. I believe we do a pretty good job of that, and I think most people across the community do a pretty good job of that at this point in time.”

Dix said there absolutely is room for improvement and places industry can improve upon, but it must come through a collaborative process. He pointed to the current effort with DHS through the Critical Infrastructure Coordinating Councils.

Dix said lawmakers in the House seem to understand this approach, but the Senate isn’t getting it as quickly.

Critical infrastructure in most need of cyber help

CSIS’ Lewis said if the critical infrastructure section of the bill doesn’t pass, the rest of the bill isn’t worth much because this is the one area that needs the most attention.

Lewis said the bill does call for a collaborative process but there needs to be a way for DHS to make sure the standards are being met.

“The problem with voluntary, it doesn’t work. We don’t have to prove that anymore,” Lewis said. “And when anyone says we can rely on a voluntary approach, you may want to smell their breadth. That is the crux of the matter. Can we create standards and hold companies to them? We have to recognize this has to be a very light touch, it has to be collaborative and it has to differ from sector to sector. That is the crucial point for me.”

Along with FISMA and critical infrastructure, the bill includes two other sections, codifying DHS operational and oversight authorities and creating an Office of National Cyberspace Policy with a Senate-confirmed director.

“There is a real desire to do something in both parties,” Lewis said. “They want to show this is not a do-nothing Congress and this is an important bill and if they can pass it, it would be an achievement that they would be proud of. The other thing I’ve heard is there is a real push from opponents of the bill to neutralize it and to pass the easy parts and leave out anything meaningful and come back at some point in the future. The odds are good we will get something, but whether it is something useful it remains to be seen.”

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Report: Quote On Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Will Be Changed

WASHINGTON — A quote carved in stone on the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington will be changed after the inscription was criticized for not accurately reflecting the civil rights leader’s words.

The inscription currently reads: “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” The phrase is chiseled into one side of a massive block of granite that includes King’s likeness emerging from the stone. It became a point of controversy after the memorial opened in August.

A spokesman for the U.S Department of the Interior said Friday that Secretary Ken Salazar decided to have the quote changed. The Washington Post first reported on Friday the decision to change the inscription.

The phrase is modified from a sermon known as the “Drum Major Instinct,” in which the 39-year-old King explained to his Atlanta congregation how he would like to be remembered at his funeral. He made the February 1968 speech just two months before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

In the speech, King’s words seem more modest than the paraphrased inscription: “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

Poet Maya Angelou previously said the truncated version made King sound like “an arrogant twit” because it was out of context.

Salazar gave the National Park Service, which the Interior Department oversees, a month to consult with the King Memorial Foundation, which led the effort to build the memorial, as well as family members and other interested parties. The committee is supposed to come up with a more accurate alternative to the quote.

Ed Jackson Jr., the executive architect of the $120 million project, previously said King’s words were shortened for space reasons and that he stood by the paraphrased line.

He said in an emailed statement on Friday evening that the cost to make changes to the inscription will be assessed but none of the existing stone work will be removed.

“A few very carefully selected words will be added to the existing phrase; that will further amplify his statement about his role in America during the mid-20th century as a leader, a social advocate, a messenger, a voice of the people … for freedom, justice, hope and peace,” he said.

Harry Johnson, president of the King Memorial Foundation, said it wasn’t yet clear what the alternatives might be. The group would look at all the ways a change could be made, he said.

Angelou was named among the memorial’s Council of Historians tasked with selecting the inscriptions for the memorial. But she did not attend meetings about the inscriptions, Jackson said. Project planners also explained the shortened quote to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which ultimately approved the memorial’s design.

At least one other recent memorial has undergone changes after being opened to the public. After the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial opened in 1997, advocates for the disabled campaigned to have a statue added portraying Roosevelt in his wheelchair. Originally, only one statue in the memorial alluded to the fact Roosevelt lost the use of his legs after contracting polio as an adult. That statue portrayed him seated with small wheels on the back of his chair.

In 2001, a bronze sculpture depicting Roosevelt in his self-designed wheelchair was added to the entrance of the memorial. Disability groups raised $1.65 million for the addition.

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