walkman - 4:32 pm on May 18, 2005 (gmt 0)

to all you fans out there:
"On June 8, 2004, an FBI agent stopped at the Deming branch of the Whatcom County Library System in northwest Washington and requested a list of the people who had borrowed a biography of Osama bin Laden."
[news.yahoo.com...]

granted Google is not a "library", but a good lawyer can make the case that it is similar enough to fall under the same law. If a building is still smoldering, what do you think the judge will do? Now you're on a Govt' watch list for no reason, just because you wanted to find out more about some guy named (insert name here). How many of you have read or searched about Bin Laden, his family, bio, etc?

More here:
"Since the passage of the Patriot Act in October 2001, the FBI has the power to go to a secret court to request library and bookstore records considered relevant to a national security investigation. It does not have to show that the people whose records are sought are suspected of any crime or explain why they are being investigated. In addition, librarians and booksellers are forbidden to reveal that they have received an order to surrender customer data."