From: S.J. Van Sickle (sjvan@csd.uwm.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 - 07:31:51 MST
Amara wrote:
>Steve, do you (more: your wife) know how the Feds plan implement this
>provision of the Patriot Act, then? If the librarians regularly
>destroy the borrowing records, then this provision seems rather empty.
It *is* rather empty, as far as libraries are concerned. Subtle point,
possibly of legal value: the records aren't destroyed, they are never
created in the first place. The library automation systems are
designed that way on purpose.
But apparently libraries are not even specifically mentioned. The
relevent section refers to all tangible records, of which libraries are
naturally a small subset.
http://volokh.blogspot.com/2003_03_09_volokh_archive.html#90481062
Librarians all over (including my wife) have been double checking the
settings on their systems to make sure that the relevent systems are
disabled. She is not particularly worried. They have always been
vulnerable to grand juries and judges, and successfully dealt with them in
this way in the past.
steve
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