State and Local Archives

The feds are getting tough with online crime. On Thursday, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested one Texan for pirating broadcasts of live sporting events and announced the sentencing of another in a software piracy conspiracy.

Bryan McCarthy, 32, of Deer Park, Texas, allegedly operated channelsurfing.net, which he used to streamline live, copyrighted sporting events over the Internet. The site was seized by federal authorities on Feb. 1. According to the criminal complaint the site was an online portal for pirated sports events from the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and National Hockey League, among others. The website also contained links to various live television channels.

McCarthy, who has been charged with one count of criminal infringement of a copyright, made $90,000 in profits from online merchants advertising on the site, according to an ICE press release. The site had 1.3 million hits since being shut down. If convicted, McCarthy faces a maximum of five years in prison.

"Brian McCarthy allegedly sought to profit by intercepting and then streaming live sporting events, hiding behind the anonymity of the internet to make a quick buck through what is little more than high-tech thievery," said Preet Bhara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a prepared statement. "This arrest sends a clear message that this office, working with its partners at HSI, will vigorously protect valuable intellectual property rights through arrests and domain name seizures."

Also Thursday, David Fein, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, said 46-year-old Michael Uszakow, who went by the alias "iced," was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a fine of $2,000 for his involvement in an underground online community that used the Internet to engage in large-scale distribution of copyrighted software, video games, movies, music files and other protected material.

Participants in the "warez scene" worked as "crackers" to break the digital copyright protections of material while others distributed the software to file storage sites on the Internet. According to Fein, Uszakow uploaded and downloaded thousands of files from the warez server known as Nite Ranger Hideout.

The U.S. Cyber Challenge, a division of the non-profit Center for Internet Security, launched an online competition Monday to identify 10,000 "cyber warriors" among high school students with the skills to pursue advanced education and job opportunities in cybersecurity.

The nationwide competition was chartered to identify young Americans with the aptitude to become cyber leaders in government, the military and the private sector. Those who do well may receive scholarships, internships and other opportunities.

The competition combines tutorials with a series of timed quizzes in three critical areas: networking, operating systems and system administration. The curriculum and contest were developed by The SANS Institute, a computer security training company.

"We must act now to develop a competent workforce that can support the needs of securing our cyber networks, which is quickly becoming a national priority," said Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., co-chair of the House Cyber Security Caucus. "I hope this challenge will grow into a national model for inspiring and harnessing our young cyber talent."

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is set to unveil the largest digital archive of materials converted from pre-digital format from any administration. Nearly 300,000 documents have been formatted for online access. After their launch on Thursday, you can view them on the library's website from your couch, saving a trip to Boston.

The records that have been digitized include more than 200,000 pages of text, 300 reels of audio tape, 300 museum artifacts, 72 reels of moving images, and 1,500 photos, the National Archives said in a news release. It is the largest presidential archive available online, according to the Archives.

Caroline Kennedy, the former president's daughter and president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, along with the museum's director Thomas Putnam and Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, will debut the documents on the 50th Anniversary of Kennedy's inauguration.

Massachusetts has alerted a website operator that he could face jail time for failing to take down data released to him through a freedom of information request.

According to a Thursday report in The Boston Globe, Massachusetts' Department of Transitional Assistance sent Michael Morisy, cofounder of MuckRock.com, a website devoted to open records, a letter earlier this week warning him failure to remove the data could result in fines or imprisonment.

The acting general counsel of DTA told Morisy the agency released the information -- which concerns how much money in food stamps has been spent at Massachusetts businesses over the past five years -- erroneously. She said she was not threatening him, but alerting him of possible ramifications, as told to her by the Agriculture Department, Boston.com reported.

Morisy has consulted with an attorney and it is unclear what action the state might or might not take. The data remains on the website.

The government's stimulus spending watchdog is set to launch a website on Monday that will track $10 billion in non-stimulus funding for education jobs, Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board announced on Wednesday. The board, which Congress established in 2009 to oversee $787 billion of economic recovery funding, will host FederalTransparency.gov while it continues to maintain the interactive stimulus-tracking site Recovery.gov.

The goal of the new site is more ambitious. Devaney has said it potentially could be used to monitor the impact of all federal funding. At this point, the board only is authorized to evaluate progress reports from recipients of stimulus funding and money disbursed under the Education Jobs Fund, which Congress created this summer.

"To avoid confusion, the board decided to establish a separate website to track spending under the new education program, which is not part of the Recovery Act. According to Devaney, the new site also will be used for any spending the board is asked to monitor in the future," board officials said in a press release.

The new site, at first, only will provide basic information, such as the total amount received by each recipient, the number of jobs funded and the status of projects, board officials said on Wednesday: "Over time, FederalTransparency.gov will have some of the same features as Recovery.gov,'' Devaney said. "We are putting up the site now as a placeholder so that the public can see where the money is going and where the jobs are being funded in states and territories.''

Under the education jobs program, the Education Department will distribute funds to states and U.S. territories, which will award the money to localities for hiring and rehiring school personnel. Schools are prohibited from using the funds for anything other than paying for salaries and benefits of education-related positions, such as teachers, librarians, secretaries, speech therapists and cafeteria workers.

It seems the FCC does more than just regulate communications. Tuesday evening the agency also served as a sports broadcaster, posting live Twitter updates on the Philadelphia Phillies versus San Francisco Giants baseball playoffs game.

The tweets helped those who have had their local Fox stations blocked out in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania over a fee dispute between Cablevision and Fox's parent company, News Corp.

Posts began during the fifth inning with a score update: "Baseball fans disappointed about missing game three? (2-0 SF, top 5th) Cablevision-Fox dispute info at http://FCC.gov/consumer."

And of course, like a true sports broadcast, the night ended with: "That's a wrap. SF takes game 3, 2-1 series lead. While we urge Fox-Cablevision to resolve the dispute, tips http://fcc.gov/consumer."

Though the blocked-out fans might not have been happy with the game's results, they can't have minded the updates. Watch out ESPN.

Reno, Nev., calls itself the "The Biggest Little City In The World," but although it has a population that's just a fraction of another Nevada casino destination, Las Vegas, it has about four times as many fans on Facebook.

What can the federal government learn from Reno's success? According to Kristy Fifelski, the city's Web services manager, a sense of humor is key to popularity. "Having a sense of humor is missing in government these days," Fifelski said in an interview. "We know our community pretty well and it just works for them. There's a time and place for everything."

For example, when Reno printed welcome mats with a typo ("The Biggest Little City in the Word"), Fifelski posted a photo on its social networking sites with the caption, "busted."

Customizing sites also is important, Fifelski said. Reno personalized its Facebook page by using a well-known landmark as a profile picture, rather than the city seal. Site administrators use a "personal style of writing that connects with our citizens," Fifelski added. The city gets a lot of fan interaction and officials make sure to monitor that and follow up using a system that logs all complaints or requests.

Finally, Reno's social networking sites are heavily integrated. Facebook browsers will find tabs for Reno's Twitter and Flickr pages, for instance.

Have a great idea for a mobile or web application using New York City data? Well it could win you a prize of up to $20,000.

On Tuesday, the Big Apple launched NYC BigApps 2.0 , its second annual contest, which involves more than 350 datasets that have been made available for use. That's double the number from the first contest, held in October 2009. The datasets include information on public safety, building complaints and real-time traffic numbers.

Fourteen winners will be selected from the applications submitted in the contest, which is open to individuals and companies and non-profits with fewer than 50 employees. Submissions are due in early January.

Among last year's winners was WayFinder NYC, which allows users to find the nearest and best directions to New York City subway and New Jersey PATH stations.

"NYC BigApps combines two of our administration's important priorities: making civic information more readily available to New Yorkers and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in New York City," said the city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, in a press release.

A group of corporate technology executives has developed a plan that they say can reduce the federal deficit by $1 trillion during the next 10 years while enhancing citizen services.

The Technology CEO Council, led by IBM's Chairman Sam Palmisano and includes Dell Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell, presented the report to Obama economic officials on Thursday. They based their plan on how the private sector has increased productivity, and reduced unnecessary expenses, "areas where the government has failed," a news release said.

The recommendations by the council, whose member companies employ 700,000 people and generate $250 billion to $300 billion in annual sales, would require no new legislation, they said. The key to achieving the savings is leadership, "and it must come from all sectors of society," the report said.

Among the recommendations were to consolidate information technology infrastructure. The report estimated 20 to 30 percent of the $76 billion the government spends on supporting its IT assets can be eliminated by reducing overhead, consolidating data centers, eliminating redundant networks and standardizing applications.

"By harnessing major technological shifts and adopting best business practices, we cannot only make our government far more productive, but also foster greater innovation in areas ranging from health care to education and energy," the 10-page report said.

Canada's capital city plans to hold a contest for citizens to think up government services. But first someone should make sure the competition's website works.

Ottawa launched this week Apps4Ottawa, which will award $50,000 (Canadian) in prizes to people who create applications designed for mobile devices, computers, websites and other software platforms, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

Yet, the government may need help with their own website. As of 3 p.m. EDT, when you go to the site for the competition, this message is displayed:

We're story, but something went wrong. We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly.

In the hope that they get it fixed quickly, the city says in a release, "Not only will you help Ottawa become a more transparent, interactive and functioning city, you will also gain major street credit . . . and yes, cash."

The competition will run from Sept. 29 to Jan. 3, and public voting will begin on the website on Jan. 4. People can submit writen apps or suggest ideas for ones. We would tell you more, but, well, the website is down.