Opposition to the USA Patriot Act is growing among libraries and booksellers, according to Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Association Foundation for Free Expression. Vermont librarians and booksellers have written an open letter to their Congressional delegation, asking it to repeal Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the FBI to conduct secret seizures of library and bookstore records. Quoting the open letter: "These provisions of the USA Patriot Act do not protect us from terrorism. Rather, they cast a wide net of suspicion and surveillance over the community of readers, researchers, and information-seekers. They are dangerous steps toward the erosion of our most fundamental civil liberties." (Thanks to LIS News.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/02/2002 12:22:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
