| The USA Patriot Act is an anti-terrorism act introduced hurriedly after the United States suffered “9/11” terrorist attacks. It has aroused widespread controversy in the society as a result of the expansion of the government's law enforcement power and infringement of citizens' legitimate rights. Many sections involve in the library in the USA Patriot Act. Section 214 includes following regulations: according to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the phone listener scope of FBI extends to all Internet routing information and address information, including email address, IP address and URL, as long as FBI determines that the records to be obtained may be related to the ongoing investigation of terrorist activities; library within the scope of review for providing users with the Internet and email services. Section 215 includes following regulations: according to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FBI could obtain any tangible object information, including books, documents,records, etc.; FBI could obtain library records, including the user registration information, book lending records, web browsing records, etc.;library and its staff shall not disclose the investigated information to the user; the act is not restricted by the State Library's secret protection law. Section 216 includes following regulations: FBI could obtain a national eavesdropping order from any federal court that has a criminal investigation of the jurisdiction of the federal court, as long as claiming that the information to be obtained is relevant to the investigation of terrorism; the object to be investigated needs to cooperate with FBI to provide information or installation of monitoring equipment and not to disclose the monitored fact; library provides Internetand electronic communication services for users and needs to provide computer using or transfer of electronic communication information to FBI.The three sections directly violated the professional responsibility and professional position of the library to insist on the intellectual freedom,and the user privacy right and know right. American library circle actively respond to the violations that the USA Patriot Act brings to the library and its user rights. The American Library Association(ALA) takes following resistance measures: formulating relevant countermeasure standard,including revising and explaining the Library Bill of Rights, formulating statements, policies and guidelines related to intellectual freedom, and publishing relevant resolutions; launching user privacy right protection campaign; uniting other interest groups to resist together. Library takes following resistance measures: re-adjusting or re-formulating user management policies, formulating rules or guidelines for protecting user privacy right; using circulation management system with automatic cleaning user borrowing and reading record; training librarians and formulating librarians resistance guidelines for FBI review, etc. Librarian takes following resistance measures: adhering to the professional spirit for defending library and its user right; studying the relevant legal policy,fulfilling the relevant standards and guidelines of the library circle,and actively participating in relevant training, in order to enhance the ability to resist the review; deleting unnecessary user privacy information, reminding user to remove unnecessary information and take away books timely; in response to the ALA call, joining the defense of the library and user rights alliance, collecting information related to FBI violating user privacy, etc. The enlightenments of the struggle between American library circle and the USA Patriot Act are: intellectual freedomand library right should be reasonably restricted by the ethics, the law and regulations, and the public power; library could judge the protection priority between public security and user privacy right referring to the law priority principle, one thing one using principle, and attending each one's own duties principle. |
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