[iwar] [fc:Libraries:.The.new.cyberbattleground]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-07-13 22:20:14
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 22:20:14 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Libraries:.The.new.cyberbattleground]
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Libraries: The new cyberbattleground
By Lisa M. Bowman  Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 11, 2002
<a href="http://news.com.com/2008-1082-942790.html">http://news.com.com/2008-1082-942790.html>

newsmakers The nation's librarians are emerging as vocal advocates in a
debate over who should have rights to what in the information age.

The American Library Association, which has successfully sued to stop
mandatory Web filtering in libraries, has also lobbied against bills
that would require anti-copy protection in some devices. Further, the
group has spoken out against new federal anti-terrorist rules that seek
to lower standards for law enforcement looking to access library
records.

It may sound like an untraditional role for librarians, who are in the
business of furthering the free dissemination of information. But the
digitization of society has presented them with a range of questions
that bump up against the First Amendment.

After the ALA's recent win in a Web filtering case, CNET News.com spoke
with the group's legislative counsel, Miriam Nisbet, to talk about the
debate over access to digital information and privacy rights as well as
the evolving activism of the profession.

Q: It seems like librarians are becoming more politically active than
ever before. Why is that?  A: I don't know that they are more so, or
people just perceive them as more politically active. Librarians have
always been very much at the forefront of issues having to do with
access to information, privacy rights, or First Amendment issues. Those
issues just may be getting more attention now.

A federal court just handed libraries a victory in the federal filtering
case, ruling that the government cannot tie funding to Web
blocking--although the government is appealing. How is that affecting
libraries?  A lot of libraries are trying to rethink the whole thing and
make sure they don't have the filtering process set up that goes too far
the other way and violates First Amendment rights. ALA's position from
the very beginning has been that the decision about filtering should be
made at the local library level. It shouldn't be something the federal
government mandates. One size does not fit all.

So filtering is OK in some cases?  That should be a decision made by the
local libraries, yes. There has been some litigation over particular
filtering in various locations where people have challenged the
filtering being used as too restrictive. This is not something that's
working beautifully and smoothly in any place. But again, our bottom
line is that this is something that needs to be worked out by the
individual local libraries and not dictated from on high.

Law enforcement is getting more leeway to get information about people's
reading and surfing habits. How is that affecting libraries?  There are
a couple of different things going on here. Under the Patriot Act, there
has been a change and a broadening of what records might be accessible
to law enforcement. That is a change, but it's not something entirely
unknown or unfamiliar to libraries. In other words, library records are
very much a matter of state confidentiality and privacy laws. Most
states have laws that provide for confidentiality of patron records.
Nevertheless, through the years, courts have had authority, using the
appropriate legal standard, to issue search warrants or other kinds of
orders that would allow the seizure of patron records under certain,
very focused, narrowly designated circumstances. That's not new.

What is new under the Patriot Act is that library records do seem to be
more easily accessible in both criminal and foreign counterintelligence
investigations. But again, there are procedures, and there are court
orders that have to be obtained. We are concerned about that because of
the broadening of potential accessibility to patron records.

The other thing...the attorney general recently issued revised
guidelines for the FBI about what it can do when conducting preliminary
investigations and investigations of criminal and terrorist activity.
Under those revised guidelines, the attorney general has made it clear
to FBI agents that--in the course of doing a preliminary inquiry into
possible criminal activity, including terrorist activity--they can go to
any place the public can go and observe. And that means places like
public libraries and religious institutions, churches, mosques.

And the concern being voiced? There is concern that there will be sort
of free-ranging monitoring and surveillance that people saw and reacted
very adversely to in the 60s and the early 70s, sort of a revival of
agents wandering around monitoring and surveilling without having any
probable cause to do so. I don't think we have a good feeling yet for
how this is affecting people, people who go to places of worship or
people who are in libraries.

What do you see as the role of libraries in the digital age?  I think
it's more important than ever. The challenge is trying to make sense of
all this information we're bombarded with. Libraries are exactly the
right place to help people work their way through all that information.
Sometimes you hear people say, "Nobody's going to need libraries
anymore. Everyone can just go and do it themselves." But I think anybody
that says that probably hasn't actually tried to do the kind of
searching--seriously focused searching--that has to be done for school
purposes, for research, for scholarship, or even for things you might be
looking for in your ordinary course of business. I think libraries are
even more important.

What are some of your biggest concerns about how technology is changing
the way information is accessed or delivered?  Libraries, I think, have
embraced technology. It really can enhance the distribution of
information. But the other side of that is the potential of technology
to lock up information. There's a lot of talk right now about digital
rights management or copy protection, which is very much in the
forefront because of the people who make motion pictures, music,
software. (They) are very concerned about digital information more
easily being pirated or stolen or inappropriately disseminated. It's a
very understandable concern. We can certainly appreciate that, and we
can appreciate that those industries are working very hard to try and
come up with ways to get their information out to people but to have it
lost forever, to lose all of their control.

What do you see as the challenge?  The problem is how you keep the copy
protections and the copy controls so tight that you then really keep
information locked up instead of being accessible. I think that's one of
the biggest issues facing not just libraries but various industries that
make devices on which information is played. I'm thinking particularly
of the outcry and concern expressed by a wide array of institutions,
businesses, end users in the wake of the introduction by Senator
Hollings of the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act
in March, which would seem to require copy protection be installed in
all computer devices. That's a pretty remarkable scope to require such a
thing. I think a lot of people have questions about how such a bill
would work and would it really be good?

What's the alternative?  We don't know yet. There's a lot of exploration
going on right now in terms of trying to find the right mix, the right
balance, the right standards, compatibility of devices and materials.
Let's certainly not have a law passed that requires something that we
don't know will work.

Anything else on the technology horizon that you're working on or
worried about?  One is the whole interplay between what might be done
with technology in terms of digital material and how that intersects
with--or completely overrides--what people are still able to do
legitimately under copyright law in terms of fair use and preservation
and archiving of materials.

There are various provisions under copyright law that allow the use of
copyrighted material without having to ask permission of the copyright
owner. That's built into the law. The idea is that even though it's
really important to give copyright owners control over their works and
how they can be copied and distributed or performed, there's also a
recognition that there is a benefit to society in not having things too
tightly locked up.

You might need to use a piece of copyrighted work for an article that
you are writing or that may be needed in the classroom for teaching
purposes. Those are part of a very carefully crafted balance in our
copyright law and in our copyright tradition. If you have technology
that totally eliminates any human judgment in the process, then you've
effectively overwritten what the law would otherwise allow you to
do...Figuring out how that can all work--and work in a harmonious
fashion--I think, is the greatest puzzle we face now.

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