ANNOUNCEMENTS
It is with sadness that we announce the passing of a CITBA member, Don Weadon on March 23, 2008. Donald Weadon was Senior Partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Weadon and Associates, and his practice of international business, foreign trade and logistics law focused on the international transfer of high technology good and services. He received his J.D. from the University of California's Hastings College of the Law and completed his M.B.A. on a fellowship to the Harvard Business School program at the Iran Center for Management Studies in Tehran. He was an authority on export controls and embargoes, customs law and procedure, antiboycott and corrupt practices legislation. A speaker on law business and negotiating strategies in emerging markets, Mr. Weadon taught at the George Mason University Institute for Public Policy, and his articles have appeared in numerous journals. His biography has appeared in Who's Who in the Law, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World for nearly twenty years.
Andrew P. Vance Memorial Writing Competition
CITBA and Brooklyn Law School (BLS) sponsor this annual Writing Competition to encourage law students who are interested in careers in customs and international trade law. The competition honors the memory of Andrew Vance, past president of CITBA and a distinguished practitioner and public servant. Entrants must be currently enrolled in a JD or LLM program at any of the nation's law schools. Additional information and instructions for participation in this competition is forth in this link (you will need a program that reads .pdf files such as Adobe Acrobat Reader)
TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE (TAA) CASES IN THE CIT
The U.S. Court of International Trade hears cases involving TAA. To learn about TAA, click on this link to read an EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (You must have an Adobe Acrobat program to view this link) of a course first presented at “What You Need to Know About Trade Adjustment Assistance Cases – From All Sides” sponsored by the U.S. Court of International Trade, the American Bar Association, and the Customs and International Trade Bar Association, in April, 2005.
Additional and more detail information can be obtained at the TAA Coalition web site, which includes a "Primer on TAA petition process," among other informative materials.
MESSAGE CONCERNING ELECTRONIC FILING IN THE USCIT
We have received comments and concerns about Metadata, and what the risks are in publishing and sharing electronic documents. The following is an overview of Metadata, and some of the issues that have been brought to our attention. If you have any questions about Metadata, we encourage you to speak with your IT staff.
Ruby Krajick
Systems Manager
U.S. Court of International Trade
1 Federal Plaza
New York, New York 10278
THE METADATA PROBLEM
Briefly, Metadata is simply data that describes other data. Specifically, Metadata is information that remains in an electronic document, such as the document's author(s), recipients, file properties, and especially troubling in some situations, the history of all prior revisions. It exists because of intentional design features in current computer software. If not monitored properly, Metadata can disclose information about the document that was not intended to be transmitted or shared. Although Metadata is most commonly found in documents created in Microsoft Word (and Microsoft's Excel and PowerPoint), similar problems can exist with WordPerfect documents and even PDF files.
PDF (Portable Document Format) is the only format used by the Court's CM/ECF System. The Clerk's Office is recommending creating PDF files natively (without scanning), which produces a smaller file and a crisper image of the document. We believe strongly that the native PDF documents are the better choice for filing papers with the Court.
In the past, there has been a perception that PDF documents were secure and could not be edited. This conclusion arose for two reasons. First, a PDF file was traditionally regarded as a "picture" of a document and therefore impenetrable. Second, in the past, many computer users had only the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which basically permitted a user to read a PDF file. Only limited edits are possible using Acrobat Reader, primarily to documents set up as forms.
In recent years, many lawyers (as well as the entire Judiciary) have upgraded from the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to the full version of Adobe Acrobat. The newer versions of the full Acrobat program are designed to make it easier for users to work collaboratively on PDF documents. The recipient of a PDF document, who has a newer Acrobat program, can edit the text of the document much as if it were a Word or WordPerfect file. The recipient also can comment on the document and send the comments back to the author. The author then can decide which suggestions to accept and export those comments into the document. The full version of Adobe Acrobat also has tools that make it easy to redact portions of the text of a PDF file by "blacking out" provisions of the document.
THE RISKS
PDF documents are not necessarily secure if you leave Metadata behind in the document for others to view.
The ability to edit and work collaboratively on PDF documents can therefore reveal the document’s information to recipients with Adobe Acrobat. One of the settings in some versions of the full version of Acrobat, when checked, attaches the Word source file to the Adobe PDF document. If the Word file contains Metadata, that information will go along with the PDF file. Another setting allows someone working on the PDF file to "hide" comments made to the PDF. In either of these instances, a recipient of the PDF file with the full version of Acrobat may be able to view hidden information. The point is that if you use the full Acrobat program to create, edit or send PDF files, it is important to understand the PDF settings and to check periodically which settings are activated.
While the normal method used to prohibit unrestricted access to Metadata is to change the security settings so that the PDF document cannot be printed or edited without a password, the CM/ECF System will not accept any document with password encryption enabled.
SUGGESTIONS
Regardless of the application used, it is important to understand your application settings, and to check periodically that you are creating published documents that are free of any Metadata. Users redacting text in a PDF document should not use Acrobat tools to "black out" portions of a document when their intent is that the recipients not see the redacted information. Recipients with the full version of Acrobat are able to remove the "black out" and view the redacted text.
The bottom line on this is that everyone needs to understand how properly to create, edit, and distribute electronic documents, the Metadata risks involved, the procedures for eliminating unwanted Metadata, and the steps to secure electronic documents. If you use the full version of Adobe Acrobat, please familiarize yourself with how to create a PDF file that is free of Metadata. You also should understand the features of the programs you use, their conversion and security settings and check periodically which ones are activated. We urge you to discuss this subject with your organization's Information Services staff.