Slashdot Mirror
Effects of the Patriot Act on Librarians
Quaryon writes "The Patriot Act apears to have some chilling effects with respect to libraries and booksellers. An FBI agent can get a warrant, without any evidence, in order to compel a librarian to reveal lending details on a suspect. The librarian cannot tell anyone about the search, including the target of the search, and the details of how many such searches are done are not made public. Articles at SFGate News and Common Dreams give more details." We had a related Ask Slashdot a few weeks ago.
This only just came to mind, so I hope I'm not repeating anyone, but libraries, at least, can foil the system by simply not keeping track of people's lending habits. Nothing compells a library to do this kind of marketing history, unless there are actual laws to do the compelling for them.
This now concludes our broadcast day.
Does anyone else find it ironic that the certain government interest groups are currently running television ads that attempt to show what American life would be like if certain liberties were taken away?
One of these commericals shows a young man walking up to a clerk at a library and asking for a series of books. When he's told that those books are no longer available he's asked for his name. He becomes clearly upset and attempts to leave when he's taken away by a group of men in dark suits.Seems the futures a lot closer then anyone else suspected.
...it's about finding out who the dissenters are, and then silencing them.
You're using her as bait, Master!
We should all go borrow a copies of various books that the government might have interest in tracking...
What would you think if you watched the stats and the borrowing of Mein Kampf went up 2000% in a month?
Of course, maybe their more concerned with The Catcher in the Rye...
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Given those two points, I and my fellow library employees have been told the following:
All of this applies even for the most classified requests under the most extreme reading of the PATRIOT act.
Thus, if you want to know what Sally has checked out right now, and your request makes it through all of these requirements there might be a chance that you'll find out without having to ask Sally directly.
If you want to know what Sally read last week (or possibly even this morning if the materials have already circulated) there's a good chance you're going to have to find Sally to ask her yourself.
My office has been taken over by iPod people.
it's interesting, i've been reading a book off and on for the past several months about hitler's rise to power. my main interest in the book is to understand how a democracy could devolve into a dictatorship with such low respect for civil liberties.
attitudes like yours were a key ingredient in that transition.
US Citizen living abroad? Register to vote!
If lending records are released it create a serious breech of our freedoms. In particular, how will the records be interpreted? If I regularly check out books on a certain faith, will I be categorized as that faith? If I check out books on chemistry, will I be building a bomb? If I read too much Tom Clancy, will I be a spy? It is this sort of thing that makes me wonder if the Germans comparison of out president to Hitler may not be as far off as we first imagine. We already know that dark colored people with accents cannot drive through the south without being accused of terrorism. I do not see how violating patron confidentiality will help anything.
The saddest thing is that Laura Bush is a Librarian. The fact that such a thing could happen with her husband in office makes me wonder if there are any ethics at all in that house.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Emigrate. There's better countries to live in. They're not perfect either, but the US is definitely taking the wrong path.
Government is controlled by big business. The two big parties have very few differences between them. Even when elections do happen, they are a sham, as can be seen in the last presidential election.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
Read it more carefully.
(Note: thomas.loc.gov gives temporary links. Those looking for the bill text should do a search for HR 3162).
Relevant sections might be
Sec. 213, on when notice of a warrant can be delayed. Note that this requires "reasonable cause to believe that providing immediate notification of the execution of the warrant may have an adverse result", and does not include
tangible property seizure or wire interception.
Section 214, where it amends Title V of FISA, regarding the subpoena of records. FBI higher-ups (no lower than assistant SAIC) may apply for orders "requiring the production of any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents and other items) for an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such investigation of a United States person is not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution."
Apparently, a FISA judge or a US Magistrate Judge must approve. In addition, the records must be sought for such an authorized investigation. In addition, you can also find the non-disclosure requirements there.
Libraries aren't special, no matter how much library associations would like to pretend they are. OTOH, they can't subpoena your library records just 'coz you hang out with a street gang called the "Bin Laden Boys" (freedom of association) or you write editorials demanding the destruction of America (speech) unless they have additional non-First-Amendment evidence.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
One comment that I havn't seen here yet (though I'm not browsing below 1 so I might have missed it):
Everyone is freaked out about them tracking our library browsing habits.
Isn't the same thing being done right now, without warrant, with regard to our *web* browsing habits?
Now - it maybe that the level needed to get a warrant has decreased under the Patriot act (IAMAL) so I'm not sure, but there STILL MUST BE some level of probably cause to get such a warrant. The original poster said that you could get a warrant without evidence...Uhm..HELLO - where do you think the government get's permission to gather personal evidence??? It's through the warrant mechanism. That means a judge has to be pursuaded that the adequate cause under whatever standard the law establishes to allow a search to occur.
So there has to be due process before ANY search can take place.
So - if a Judge says - "Yeah, give them your records" after the Judge is convinced there is a reasonable expectation that something will turn up, then the legal hurdle has been overcome to allow a search of personal property, or some business records. So how is this that different than ANY legal search of personal property or personal records?
Next comes the issue that we are actually at war. I'm not talking Sadam, but OBL who unquestionably hit us first. What I hear from the librarians amongst us is that that they would rather shred documents instead of possibly helping catch a terrorist? Is that what you really mean here? Don't forget that it is a FACT that that Al-Qaeda has used the internet from public locations like libraries and cyber-cafes to communicate. Seems like talking to librarians is a perfectly understandable place to begin such investigations?!?
Instead of having a complete knee-jerk reaction to this like "they are stepping on my rights," try looking at the reasons behind such investingations. You might find the government still has to get warrants just like they always have, and that your rights are still being observed!
Have you compiled your kernel today??
Winess what happened in Houston when the cops arrested 278 people because they happened to be eating at a burger joint or going to KMart at the wrong time... and several of them pleaded GUILTY to the charge of tresspass charges, even though none of the businesses there even asked the police to clear the parking lot. That's why the real axis of evil (AOE) will win - because they have the ability to make laws and most people can't be bothered to watch or understand what they are doing.
Who here researches candidates before voting? Don't lie, you know you don't. Barely 1 out of 5 can even bother to get to the polls, so I seriously doubt there's more than one person in the entire country that checks up on his or her representatives.
Yeah, right.
The promoting freedom bit is the propaganda, not the cultural imperialism. If you look at America's track record for the governments we set up, you will see that we have absolutely no interest in promoting freedom, but rather only have interest in promoting stability so we can have our cheap oil. We have supported some of the worst civil rights violating governments in the Middle East, and its coming back to bite us in the ass.
Who was it that put the Taliban in power in Afghanistan? We did, in order to curb the threat of Soviet invasion. Who supplied Iraq with arms even though we knew that they had used chemical weapons on their own civilians? We did, in an attempt to curb the threat of Iran. Who still supports the corrupt Saudi Arabian dictatorship? We do, so we can have a convient place to pick up oil.
Do you know which Middle Eastern country had the only spontaneous memorials for the Americans who died on September 11? Iran. The reason is that even though Iran blames us for a lot of things, they don't blame us for their government like all the other countries in that area.
Lets face it. We suck at deposing dictators, we suck at setting up governments, and we need to stop thinking that we can manipulate global politics for our own gain.