MONTPELIER, Vt. - 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 (news
- web
sites) 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 (news
- web
sites). 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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