[Libs-Or] [Fwd: [MEMBER-FORUM:425] BREAKING NEWS: Freedom to ReadAmendment]

Thu Mar 10 12:20:28 PST 2005

 Am I missing something?  Why not just support the sunsetting of this
portion of the Act?
The right to read is already covered in the 1st Amendment and the Act is
self limiting to the end of 2005. Wouldn't the time spent on writing and
moving an amendment through that timely process be better spent on areas
not already covered or on gaining additional funding support for our
libraries?    

Judy Anderson
Reference & Instruction Librarian

-----Original Message-----
From: Diedre Conkling [mailto:diedrec at charter.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 2:45 PM
To: libs-or at webhost.osl.state.or.us
Subject: [Libs-Or] [Fwd: [MEMBER-FORUM:425] BREAKING NEWS: Freedom to
ReadAmendment]

============================================================
From: "Don Wood" <dwood at ala.org>
Date: 2005/03/09 Wed PM 01:09:03 PST
To: <ifaction at ala.org>
Subject: [MEMBER-FORUM:425] BREAKING NEWS: Freedom to Read Amendment

BREAKING NEWS: MARCH 9, 2005
BOOK GROUPS SAY NOW IS THE TIME FOR FREEDOM TO READ PROTECTION ACT
  _____  

For more information, contact: Larry Siems, (212) 334-1660, ext. 105

Washington, DC, March 9, 2005-Organizations representing booksellers,
librarians, publishers and writers gathered on Capitol Hill today to
cheer
the reintroduction of the Freedom to Read Protection Act, promising to
mobilize readers and book lovers all over the country to press for the
restoration by the end of 2005 of privacy safeguards stripped by the USA
PATRIOT Act. 

Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced the reintroduction of the
Freedom to Read Protection Act at a press conference this morning.  He
was
joined by Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Barbara Lee (D-CA),
Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Tom Udall (D-NM), and representatives of the
American
Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the
American Library Association, and PEN American Center.

The Freedom to Read Protection Act restores the requirement that federal
law
enforcement agencies demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe
the
individual whose records are being sought is involved in espionage or
terrorism-related activities.  Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act
significantly expanded the government's power to seize business records,
even the records of individuals not suspected of terrorism or any other
crime, by using orders from a secret foreign intelligence court; a
bookstore
or library receiving such an order has no legal avenue to challenge the
seizures and is barred by a gag order from informing anyone that the
records
have been searched.

"Last year, booksellers, librarians, publishers and writers launched the
Campaign for Reader Privacy to restore safeguards for the privacy of
bookstore and library records," Oren Teicher, chief operating officers
of
the American Booksellers Association, said.  "We collected nearly
200,000
signatures on petitions in bookstores and libraries, and on our Web
site,
www.readerprivacy.org, and we are going back to the grassroots this year
to
collect even more."

ALA Washington Office Executive Director Emily Sheketoff added, "the
freedom
to read what we choose without the government looking over our shoulder
is
perhaps the most basic of all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
In
seeking to curb the overly broad provisions of Section 215, we are not
trying to thwart government efforts to investigate terrorists.  However,
we
do not believe that the government needs unsupervised, secret powers to
learn what ordinary Americans are reading."

Former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, president and chief executive
officer of
the Association of American Publishers, said: "Americans understand the
need
for accurate intelligence and heightened security to prevent acts of
terror.
But unless we protect ourselves without sacrificing our freedom, any
"security" we achieve is meaningless.  This year, with Section 215 due
to
expire, gives us a golden opportunity and every person in this country
who
values the right to read freely needs to demand that Congress restore
the
safeguards on our privacy and our freedom to read."  

Francine Prose, acclaimed novelist and vice president of PEN American
Center, emphasized that writers, like all Americans, support strong,
targeted laws to confront terrorism and prevent terrorist attacks. But
PEN,
an international human rights and free expression organization, has
documented how, in many countries struggling with real terrorist
threats,
anti-terror laws exceed their stated purpose. "We have seen time and
again
how weakening legal protections for individuals may create shortcuts for
law
enforcement, but that shortcuts inevitably lead to errors and abuses,"
Prose
said.

"The Justice Department has yet to explain to Congress or the American
people why the FBI needs the power to review the records of what you and
I
are reading," Prose added. "The government already had the power to
review
the records of anyone suspected of being a terrorist or a spy, and the
one
example it has cited for why it needs the powers, the case of an alleged
supporter of al-Qaeda who used New York Public Library computers, is one
where we believe the power it possessed before 9/11 would have allowed
it to
get the information it needed."

The Freedom to Read Protection was first introduced in 2003 and was
co-sponsored by more than 150 members of Congress, including both
Democrats
and Republicans. Although the bill did not come up for a vote,
Representative Sanders introduced an amendment that would have denied
Justice Department funds to carry out Section 215 searches of libraries
and
bookstores.  While the amendment went down to the narrowest defeat last
July, the fight on the House floor reflected what one newspaper termed
"the
growing consensus on Capitol Hill that too much liberty and privacy was
given up under the Patriot Act."

The reintroduced Freedom to Read Protection Act and Sen. Russell
Feingold's
Library, Bookseller and Personal Records Privacy Act  (S. 317) are among
a
number of bills that would strengthen civil liberties protections that
were
weakened by the USA PATRIOT Act and other post 9/11 antiterrorism
legislation.  It is expected that the Security and Freedom Ensured
(SAFE)
Act, which also restores reader privacy, will be reintroduced this year.
Its authors are Senators Larry Craig (R-ID) and Richard Durbin (D-IL).

  _____  

 *         *         * 
PEN Campaign for Core Freedoms
PEN American Center
588 Broadway, Suite 303
New York, NY 10012
tel. (212) 334-1660 x116
fax. (212) 334-2181
 <http://www.pen.org/corefreedoms> www.pen.org/corefreedoms 

  _____  

============================================================

Diedre Conkling

  Lincoln County Library District
  P.O. Box 2027, Newport, OR  97365
  Phone & Fax:  541-265-3066
  http://lcld.library-blogs.net/
  Work:  diedre at mail.crsn.lib.or.us
  Home:  diedrec at charter.net

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