MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Some booksellers are troubled by a post-Sept. 11
federal law that gives the government broad powers to seize the records of
bookstores and libraries to find out what people have been reading.
Bear Pond Books in Montpelier will purge purchase records for customers if
they ask, and it has already dumped the names of books bought by its
readers' club.
"When the CIA comes and asks what you've read because they're suspicious of
you, we can't tell them because we don't have it," store co-owner Michael
Katzenberg said. "That's just a basic right, to be able to read what you
want without fear that somebody is looking over your shoulder to see what
you're reading."
The Patriot Act approved after the 2001 terrorist attacks allows government
agents to seek court orders to seize records "for an investigation to
protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence
activities."
Such court orders cannot be challenged like a traditional subpoena. In
fact, bookstores and libraries are barred from telling anyone if they get one.
U.S. Attorney Peter Hall played down concern that government agents might
soon be darkening the door at Vermont bookstores and libraries.
"Only in very rare and limited and supervised circumstances would anyone be
seeking that sort of business information from a bookseller, a library or a
business of any sort," Hall said.
He also said businesses can do whatever they want with purchase records as
long as the material isn't being sought under a court order.
Such record requests from bookstores were becoming more frequent even
before the attacks.
Kramer's Books in Washington won a court order blocking independent counsel
Kenneth Starr from getting records of purchases by Monica Lewinsky during
his investigation of the sex scandal involving President Clinton. And the
Colorado Supreme Court ruled last year for a Denver book store in its fight
against a subpoena of purchase records by a defendant in a drug case.
The court found that "compelled disclosure of book-buying records threatens
to destroy the anonymity upon which many customers depend."
Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers' Foundation for Freedom
of Expression, said booksellers until now have frequently kept lists of
books their customers read as a matter of marketing. Some offer discounts
to frequent customers or send a notice when a favorite author has a new
release.
Finan said he wasn't aware of any widespread move by booksellers to purge
such lists.
Peggy Bresee was in Bear Pond Books recently to buy "War is a Force That
Gives Us Meaning" and "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" as birthday gifts
for a son who lives in Utah. She had the store purge the purchase records.
"It really does make me feel so much better," she said. "They're protecting
those of us who are readers. It matters."
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