"Oh, that's not abused. Not that at all. But combined with the keystroke capture and image redirect I now know your email address and password. I also know an organization you to which you belong. I also know a very bad man is a member of that organization. And since you belong to that organization you can't be trusted any longer."

Oh, so what the LAW says is OK, but if they use all this additional spyware that NOONE IS EVEN PROPOSING then it's bad? Um....ok... If you think Libraries are keeping keylogs, then you're whacked. In law school I worked in the library and KNOW the kind of antiquated stuff they have, and how technical the staff is. What you are saying is like "Pulling someone over for speeding and beating the crap out of them with a flashlight is bad" when all I was talking about is handing out speeding tickets.

Furthermore, Libraries are NOT a right! We pay for them and the Government provides them to the public. If they decide to capture info on you and let you know they are doing it (which, obviously, they are since you have to SIGN UP to use them) then so be it. Don't like it? Don't use it! Buy a computer for your home and use it there.

Why should these "free" public systems be completely unrestricted? Is it a RIGHT for people to have public Internet Access? Is it a RIGHT for them to have greater anonymity while using this free public internet access than those of us who pay for it have? Sure the Feds can get the usage logs from the library without a warrant, so what? It's a government facility afterall. They can run a violation check on your drivers licence too any time they want because the Police are a government service too.

Noone is forcing you to use library computers. It's a free service, and in return you have to leave your name. Big deal.

"Guns and anonymity are two separate issues - anonymity is not an offensive weapon in any way"

No? So if I send you a death threat anonymously then you don't see that as a bad thing? When I use a library computer to hack a commercial site to steal creditcards, isn't that a bad thing? If you don't think anonymous computer access isn't an offencive weapon then give me your IP address and I'll prove you wrong.

Ok, so you don't like the gun analogy. Sure, Republicans say "if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns" but when you say "if you outlaw anonymous access, then only outlaws will have anonymous access" it's totally different. Ok, I'll go along with that.

Then answer me this, which is my fundamental argument here:

Why should Library computers be exempt from the same level of logging that every ISP and corporation in the nation conducts?

When you lease an IP address when you dial into AOL, they know who you are and how long you've had that IP address on what day. When you login from a library, we'd have NOTHING if not for the sign-up sheets. AOL wants to know who had what IP when so that if you do something illegal that they can find you and terminate your account. Why is it OK when AOL does this, but bad when the government does this? AOL doesn't need a court order to see who had the IP address, why should the government?