Patriot Act Petition Available Online

Booksellers who wish to participate in the campaign to gather more than one million customer signatures on a petition calling for Congressional support of legislation to amend Section 215 of the Patriot Act are reminded that the petition is available in an easily downloadable PDF format on BookWeb.org. The petition, which was sent to bookstores with Book Sense in the February White Box mailing, may also be downloaded by clicking here.

The Campaign for Reader Privacy is a project of the American Booksellers Association and includes the development of a new advocacy Web site, http://www.readerprivacy.com. Although the Web site is still under development, the section for booksellers presently includes links to many of the important documents that the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has produced in connection with the campaign to protect the privacy of customer records. These documents can help booksellers respond to customer inquiries about the petition.

In the coming weeks, other sections of the site will be completed, including Web pages directed towards consumers, schools, businesses, writers, and more. Look for an announcement of the site's official launch in an upcoming edition of Bookselling This Week.