92 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
92 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
From: mt@MEDIA-LAB.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael Travers)
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Subject: Unions denied access to commercial database services
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Date: 24 Dec 87 05:41:12 GMT
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I came across this in InfoWorld (Nov 23, 1987). It has some scary
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implications about the desire and ability of corporations to control
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access to information. This points up the need for alternative power
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structure databases such as those that were discussed on prog-d a
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few months ago.
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Restricted Access Riles Dialog Users
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by Jeff Angus and Alice LaPlante
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Subscribers to on-line databases may increasingly see the words
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"unauthorized file" when they try to use certain services, if a recent
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trend continues unchecked.
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Last week, Dialog Information Services, a carrier of Dun & Bradstreet
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financial databases--including the now-restricted Dun's Financial
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Records--told labor union librarians that they would no longer be able
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to access certain files.
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"If it's allowed to go on, this could set a precedent for a wide range
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of discrimination in online services, which are essentially public
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utilities," said Randy Barber, a financial consultant with the Center
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for Economic Organizing, in Washington.
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This time the discrimination is aimed specifically at labor unions and
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possibly the IRS, according to Barber. But if online services such as
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Dialog can cut off certain subscribers simply because of fears about
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how the data will be used, the next step could be routinely forbidding
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customers to access certain files at the slightest hint of an
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adversarial motive, according to Barber.
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"It could get to the point where you'd have to have a demonstrably
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benign reason to access certain data," said Barber. "This precedent
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could have severe repercussions on the free market for ideas."
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According to the AFL-CIO's librarian, Ruby Tyson, when she first got
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the "unauthorized file" message while trying to access the Dun
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database, she was referred by Dialog to the New Jersey office of Dun &
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Bradstreet On-line Services, where a spokesman told her a list of 240
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"entities" had been compiled and sent to Dialog with the instructions
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to deny access to any person or organization on that list.
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"We were told it wasn't just unions but other groups, including the
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IRS," Tyson said, adding that Dun & Bradstreet hinted the ban might be
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extended to other databases as well.
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Both Dialog Information Services and Dun & Bradstreet refused to
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comment, but Marvin Hrubes, an attorney representing the United Food
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and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), sent a letter to
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both organizations charging that Dun & Bradstreet's actions constitute
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tortuous interference with the UFCW's contract with Dialog and are
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violations of the National Labor Relations Act and the civil rights
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laws of both California and the District of Columbia.
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Tyson as well as Ellen Newton, librarina of the United Food &
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Commercial Workers International, say Dun's on-line information can be
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gathered through hard copies of the data. But this defeats the
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purpose of subscribing to an on-line service since researching and
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tabulating data manually using hard copy is complex and
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time-consuming, they said.
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Tyson and Newton find the Dun move and Dialog's assent to it not only
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an inconvenience, because the service is so productive, but also an
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offense to their librarians' sense of the appropriate access to
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information, they added.
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"We think it's a serious matter and something that causes concern for
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libraries in their role of providing access to the broadest possible
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diversity of ideas," said Patrice McDermott, the assistant director of
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the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library
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Association.
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Newton added that he has seen the information spreading. "Dun &
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Bradstreet has also knocked us off of Data Times," he said. "We just
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got a message saying that Dun's database service is unavailable under
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our agreement, which can't be true because we haven't signed any new
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agreement since Data Times added the Dun Service."
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Newton spoke to a Data Times spokesoman who said that Dun & Bradstreet
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had also sent his company a list of names of entities to be denied
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access.
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Electronic Osmosis by New York On-Line. Modem: (718) 852-2662 300/1200/2400
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distributed by Ohio State University Students for Peace & Disarmament
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P.O. Box 22, Ohio Student Union, 1739 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210
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