Announcements
Opportunity for CITBA Members to Comment on Possible CIT Procedural Change
Court Rule 73 - Filing of Official Documents - provides the basis for the Clerk to request “from the appropriate customs officer” documents relating to an action commenced in the Court. The Clerk’s office has reported that soon it may be hard pressed to find storage space in the Court for such documents.
Members of the Advisory Committee have voiced their opinions about this change and the problems it may create. We seek to afford CITBA members, and others who may learn of this proposal, the opportunity to comment as well. If interested, please respond via email to msor888@rode-qualey.com.
CITBA Comments Regarding The Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking On Courtesy Notices Of Liquidation
 | May 17 Comments |
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).
Click here to view winners since 1999.
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.