From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Tue Mar 11 2003 - 09:48:07 MST
>Agree about the handiness factor being absent. Of course, that's
>very much what paper and ink booksellers are still in the business
>of selling at a premium (at a profit).
Libraries might not be the best way of reading books these days,
anyway, given the current political climate.
Since the Feds can now snoop into U.S citizen's reading habits,
I suggest not to use libraries for your reading material. You might
want to think twice about bookstore purchases too.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/10/MN14634.DTL
Libraries post Patriot Act warnings
Santa Cruz branches tell patrons that FBI may spy on them
[...]
"The Justice Department says libraries have become a logical target
of surveillance in light of evidence that some Sept. 11 hijackers
used library computers to communicate with each other.
But the signs ordered by the Santa Cruz library board -- a more
elaborate version of warnings posted in several libraries around the
nation -- are adding to the heat now being generated by a
once-obscure provision of the Patriot Act.
Section 215 of the act allows FBI agents to obtain a warrant from a
secret federal court for library or bookstore records of anyone
connected to an investigation of international terrorism or spying.
Unlike conventional search warrants, there is no need for agents to
show that the target is suspected of a crime or possesses evidence
of a crime. As the Santa Cruz signs indicate, the law prohibits
libraries and bookstores from telling their patrons, or anyone else,
that the FBI has sought the records.
The provision was virtually unnoticed when the Patriot Act, a major
expansion of government search and surveillance authority, was
passed by Congress six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But
in the last year, Section 215 has roused organizations of librarians
and booksellers into a burst of political activity, and is being
cited increasingly by critics as an example of the new law's
intrusiveness. "
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