After reading this ALA document http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/usapatriotlibrary.html , I believe I have concocted a legal administrative measure to thwart the anonymous fishing expeditions (esp.those authorized under the USA Patriot Act). In a nutshell, libraries would create a database to track and manage LE requests (this might be manual or online). They would also make available a special service, perhaps charged to their library account, for their patrons to check whether their names were in this database and guarantee a response within 48 hours. If they were in the DB the library would fail to respond, thus providing a sort of ZK proof of investigation.
Q: Are such "deadman" data bases systems unlawful? Can LE force the library to provide false information to a patron? steve
