FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional National Security Letter After ACLU and EFF Challenge

Gag Order Lifted on Internet Archive, Allowing Founder to Speak Out for First Time

San Francisco – The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive’s founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand.

“The free flow of information is at the heart of every library’s work. That’s why Congress passed a law limiting the FBI’s power to issue NSLs to America’s libraries,” said Brewster Kahle, founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. “While it’s never easy standing up to the government — particularly when I was barred from discussing it with anyone — I knew I had to challenge something that was clearly wrong. I’m grateful that I am able now to talk about what happened to me, so that other libraries can learn how they can fight back from these overreaching demands.”

• EFF’s overview of the Internet Archive, et al v Mukasey et al case, with links to partially-redacted NSL and other court documents
• ACLU’s overview of Internet Archive, et al v Mukasey et al and background on National Security Letters
• Full EFF/ACLU Press Release

When you enter, you are greeted with a sign that explains the library:

This is a prototype library of the future that has access to millions of books, videos, and audio items from thousands of libraries worldwide. This library fits into a small room but still can house music, videos, one of a kind or popular books, and a librarian. It has download capabilities for patrons with music players, e-books, audio books and storage devices, and a Print on Demand machine that can print and bind a book in ten minutes.

The purpose of the open library is to provide universal access to all published knowledge. By using digitizing equipment, computer storange, and the Internet, we can realize the dream of the Library of Alexandria.

When you walk in, the first thing that grabs your attention is the Espresso Book Machine, which can print a book and bind a book in about ten minutes.

The EBM completely changes the physical structure of the library. Using the public access terminal in the library or your own laptop, you can order one of the 200,000+ books from the Internet Archive book collection. It takes about five minutes of preparation and another five minutes of printing, and then a perfect-bound book shoots out of the machine. Here is some video of the EBM in action.

Even though this prototype library is pysically quite small, it has a collection larger than 80% of the libraries in the US. The Internet Archive book collection is growing at a rapid pace (15,000 books a month and rising). Soon, this might be the largest library in the world, and you will be able to put one in every town!

In the two pictures above, you can see the ingredients of the Library of the Future:

• Librarian’s Desk
• Ten Minute Press
• A public internet terminal, for ordering books form other libraries, printing books out, and filling up your iPod/ebook reader.
• One-of-a-Kind Books, including:
  
  • Ancient Books, part of a History of the Written Word exhibit.
  • Book Arts, including:
    
    • Cake Books, by Jodi Alexander
    • Hong Kong Tales, by Anna Wolf
    • Winter Orchard, by Carl Dern
    • Domestic Science, by Nance O’Banion
      
• E-Book Readers, in this case, the OLPC
• Banned Books
• Foreign-language books
• Local-interest and technology books
• 78 rpm records, and other non-book material
• A comfy chair
  

linky to pics on flickr

(click play to start) (link to other sizes)

This video was shot during configuration of the machine, so you can see the printing/binding process, but the book gets stuck and comes out mangled.. I’ll upload another video after the machine is set up..

(press play to start video) (link to other sizes)

via BB.

What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book—our planet’s cultural legacy.

First, the library must be on the Internet. No physical space could be as big or as universally accessible as a public web site. The site would be like Wikipedia—a public resource that anyone in any country could access and that others could rework into different formats.

Second, it must be grandly comprehensive. It would take catalog entries from every library and publisher and random Internet user who is willing to donate them. It would link to places where each book could be bought, borrowed, or downloaded. It would collect reviews and references and discussions and every other piece of data about the book it could get its hands on.

But most importantly, such a library must be fully open. Not simply “free to the people,” as the grand banner across the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh proclaims, but a product of the people: letting them create and curate its catalog, contribute to its content, participate in its governance, and have full, free access to its data. In an era where library data and Internet databases are being run by money-seeking companies behind closed doors, it’s more important than ever to be open.

So let us do just that: let us build the Open Library.

From Aaron Swartz’s blog:

I thought of the smartest programmers and designers I knew and gave them a ring, sat down for coffee with them, threatened to fly out to their homes and knock on their doors. In the end, we got together an amazing group of people — all sworn to secrecy of course — and in the past few months we’ve put together what’s probably the biggest project I ever worked on.

So today I’m extraordinarily proud to announce the Open Library project. Our goal is to build the world’s greatest library, then put it up on the Internet free for all to use and edit. Books are the place you go when you have something you want to share with the world — our planet’s cultural legacy. And never has there been a bigger attempt to bring them all together.

Congrats Aaron and team!

December’s San Francisco NetSquared Meetup will feature Richard Cave, IT Director, and Barbara Cohen, Executive Editor, of PLoS (Public Library of Science).

PLoS is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. PLoS is helping to shape the global open access movement–which includes scientists, funders, publishers, librarians, patient advocacy groups, lawmakers, and many others.

Where:
Citizen Space

1. 300, 425 Second Street
   

When
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

More info

(peliom): Wow, everything looks beautiful, thanks for taking the pictures! I’m afraid all I have to offer is this Slide Show.

The Mechanics’ is fantastic place and fabulous resources. All those catwalks and low ceiling bookshelves! If you’re a Web 2.0 warrior without a fixed location, or just need a break, the $95 yearly membership fee is a steal. That’s cheaper than dot-Mac!!

A Note: the WiFi unfortunately uses WEP encryption. They will happily give you the password at the info desk (assuming you have a day pass or a membership) but make sure to just ask for the “wireless network instructions for Mac” otherwise they might get confused. The key is printed at the bottom of the one page printout.

(rajbot again): Peliom touched on one of the two reasons why I won’t be getting a membership to the Mechanics’ Institute. The first reason involves the concept of library access. There are a few different kinds of private libraries, and this library isn’t one that cares about Universal Access to Human Knowledge. The Mechanics’ Institute goes out of their way to limit access. When we first arrived we couldn’t even get inside since they have a swipecard reader on the front door and we weren’t members, just visitors wanting to purchase a daypass. We got in by waiting for someone to exit and then sneaking inside like criminals. This library has very little outreach; definitely not the kind of library that would fund a bookmobile. They go so far as to lock down their wireless internet access.. even the shopping mall across the street has free, open wifi. Private libraries definitely have their place, but this one feels like it tries too hard to be exclusive. Member dues only make up 11% of their revenue, so their stuffy attitude seems odd and rubs me the wrong way.

The second reason I won’t be joining the Mechanics’ Institute is it’s lack of technical depth. I was excited by the fact that there was a technical library in SF, but if you want to keep up with the state-of-the art, you need access to the relevant journals in your field. In my case, this means access to IEEE Xplore, which this library doesn’t provide. Their new titles are mostly non-technical, with a very small number of novice computer books and a couple general-interest science volumes. I loved walking through their stacks and saw a huge number of non-technical books that I would love to have the time to read. But for my casual reading, the internet and Amazon better serve my needs. It was a fun visit, and I’m sure I’ll visit many more times on a daypass, especially when I’m in the financial district and want to play a game of chess followed by a leisurely nap in a big chair :)

(peliom): BWAHAHAHAHAH!!! “relevant journals in your field?” … who is going to order the only journal rajbot will ever need?

Not me … uh uh, no way …