patriot act

Eyeteeth has a great interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of The Anarchist in the Library (which is now at the top of my "to-read" list). Vaidhyanathan discusses the ways that sharing networks--be they local communities like church groups or jam sessions or transnational structures like the Internet of global corporations--work as the medium for cultural growth and development.

A couple of years ago, the owner of Denver's Tattered Cover bookstore said "No". The recipients of this refusal were the North Metro Drug Task Force, who had ever-so-nicely asked if they might see the records related to a book purchase a suspected methamphetamine producer had ordered from the bookstore. Seems they had found two books on the fine art of meth-making in the suspect's home, and an empty mailing envelope from the Tattered Cover in the trash. They were able to make their case without the Tattered Cover's cooperation, and the baddie is now doing time