Recent articles have led me to conclude that much of the current debate is ill placed.

It's not about the data.

This is not to say that the data is irrelevant, but rather to suggest that a debate far more significant remains ahead, although the outline of that larger question is not yet in view.

Actions taken now will set the context for the next debate.

The measure of the Network Society is not the number of songs on an iPod, nor the DRM that aims to protect them, nor the guerrilla code that seeks to free them. Ditto for the databases.

What is it all about?

The FBI effort, authorized by the antiterrorism law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, is the first broad government check of library records since the 1970s when prosecutors reined in the practice for fear of abuses.

FBI Begins Visiting Libraries