You Can Get Anything You Want at Alice's Restaurant

[rolanni]

Offered at the moment without comment. Back later.

Patriot Act Hits Close to Home (2)
In the previous Jungle Beat, I reported the narrow defeat of the Freedom to Read Amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State (CJS Appropriations Bill. The amendment would have barred the Justice Department from using money appropriated under the (CJS bill to search bookstore and library records under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. If you think that as women's fiction writers, we're immune from scrutiny under the Patriot Act, think again. Last fall, the home of a multi-published author for an RWA-recognized publisher was raided and her writing in materials confiscated. The writer, an RWA and PAN member who asked to be referred to as Dilyn, agreed to he interviewed for this column to alert RWA members of potential risks when conducting research.

Read the rest here

Comments

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Yes...

Another friend has posted this, I think I need to echo the link, too.

We had wondered if we'd need to change our buying and library habits. Apparently, yes.

But I'm already in trouble--I just bought books on ritual magic and Slave root magic.

This reminds me a bit of when Steve Jackson Games was raided by the FBI--do you remember that? A lot of us thought, no, this HAS to be an exaggeration. Nope--so real, Bruce Sterling wrote a book about it, I believe....

How Odd...

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

In my other life I worked for Kaman Sciences, which sold one of the major library catalog systems, which includes check in and check out. The trail to the borrower is deleted upon return of the book. The competition's was the same, for protecting the patron's privacy was of great concern. I don't think such changes could have been acomplished to all the library systems in three years. My local library still smiles smugly and says, the law may say we have to turn over the information, but we simply don't have the information to give. Of course, if the books are currently checked out, it could be checked. But even if certain books are flagged, who the heck would have the time to check all the hits for all the libraries in the USA? It does not compute for me.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

This reminds me a bit of Dorothy Sayer's Strong Poison, where Harriet Vane was nearly convicted of murder, based in large part on research for her next book.