Slashdot Mirror
House Limits Patriot Act Rules on Library Records
xerid writes "From CNN.COM: "WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Wednesday to block the FBI and the Justice Department from using the Patriot Act to search library and book store records. Despite a veto threat from President Bush, lawmakers voted 238-187 to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects.""
What does it matter when there are cameras at the library entrance? Simply that you go to a library, that you go in and "steal" intellectual property instead of buying the book, that's enough sin. After all, how are we going to have an information economy when public institutions like libraries give the stuff away for free? How are the authors going to feed themselves? You have to deal with the people who choose to go to the libraries instead of buying pay-per-view programs and sitting at home, before you can close the libraries due to "lack of attendance,", or at least completely revamp them into fully digital DRM'd bookstores. You will still be able to check out digital copies of some books, but the library will only have one copy that's permanently checked out, and instead you're ushered to buy the damn digital copy, instant download at your fingertips, only $9.99 for a non-resellable copy that self-destructs as soon as it detects someone else's fingerprints.
Education of the masses will be required if we're to succeed in getting this horrible anti-American law abolished. I say anti-American because it stands against virtually every principle that American was founded on. What we really need to do is put this whole damn thing into perspective so Joe Taxpayer can understand it. So here is my explanation of the whole deal:
George Bush is our version of the Emperor, the Global War on Terror is his Death Star, and the Patriot Act is his version of Darth Vader.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
it's the queers. they're in it with the aliens. they're building landing strips for gay martians.
---
Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
And frankly, I feel like I had a helluva lot more rights then, than I do now.
No doubt about that.
The Americans are having their freedoms stripped away from them little by little, but they are so unaware. If only the American fore-fathers could see them now; they would be shaking their heads in disbelief that the American public can so easily dismiss what they themselves have worked so hard for.
People, you realize that once a tiny bit of freedom is taken from you, you never get it back. Not ever. All of these tiny bits are adding up to quite a lot. Now, citizens in both Europe and Eastern Europe have more freedoms than the USA. How sad.