LibraryThing and Abebooks... The Deal
The short version
LibraryThing is getting a partner. The partner is Abebooks.com, the Canadian company that matches booksellers with booklovers. Abe has taken a minority (40%) share of the company; I retain 60% and majority control. With the financial security and resources Abe brings to the table, LibraryThing's future looks very bright—increased membership, decent servers and two-three employees working on exciting new features.
There is no down side. LibraryThing's stringent Privacy Policy remains intact and in effect. The contract forbids LibraryThing from giving Abe ANY user data—not one user name, real name or email. Reviews will not leave the site without explicit permission (ie., not some buried legal clause). LibraryThing will not suddenly sprout Abe ads all over the place or prevent you from buying from other booksellers. Rather, LibraryThing will provide Abe with certain anonymous and aggregate data, like book recommendations or tag clouds, to help Abe users find books they want. Abe and I think we'll be able to make both our websites better.
I want to make it clear I did not just get rich. (I'm walking away with just enough to cover my legal fees and some new shirts for Book Expo America, where we're announcing this.) I did this to grow the site, and to have some security that I could keep doing what I love for years to come. Before Abe a few bad weeks would have ended development and sent me scrambling for web design work for maple syrup companies. Now I'll have a stable job and a smart, dedicated team helping me make great things.
LibraryThing remains a community of booklovers. I'm grateful for all the help people have given the site, but you're not off the hook. You control the catalog data, not me, and I'm not going to stop asking for your thoughts and ideas—they drive the site forward in a way employees can't. For starters, I want to know how you want LibraryThing to spend its new resources. And just because they'll be three developers doesn't mean there won't be bugs to catch. (There will be three times as many!)
Post about it here. If you want to ask questions, come over to the Google Group.
The back story
Since LibraryThing took off I've been wooed by various entities and characters. Early on I made the decision not to look for venture capital money.* I didn't want to end up owning 5% of an over-funded behemoth, with the 95% owned by people who don't care about books and want to see profits next week or they'll turn the servers off. I also rejected every offer to swallow, popularize and commercialize LibraryThing—the idea being that if LibraryThing were less about book lovers and what they wanted, and more about video games and "special deals," it would somehow be more appealing to "regular" people. R-r-right.
Abe was the first potential acquirer to spot LibraryThing—way back in November. They invited me up to Victoria—Seattle-ish—gave me a tour of their offices—literary quotes painted on the walls—and initiated open-ended conversations about the future of LibraryThing and what Abe and LibraryThing could do together. Hannes (CEO) and Boris (COO) worked hard to find a deal that would be good for both of us.** We eventually found a structure we both liked and wrote a deal around it.
Who are Abebooks
Abebooks (www.abebooks.com) calls itself a "dating site for booksellers and bookbuyers." They list books from over 13,000 independent booksellers around the world, helping you find what you want at a good price. Once just for used, rare and collectible books, they now do new ones as well. They run British, French, German and Spanish sites.
From previous conversations***, I get the impression that many LibraryThing users are suspicious of commercial entities, particularly ones that destroy small businesses. Within this context, Abe is the good guy. Check out this Guardian article about Abe and its competitors—how they've refuted the idea that the internet would destroy small, independent booksellers; instead the booksellers kept their homey stores and found new markets on Abe.
What will change
As of ten minutes ago, LibraryThing finally hired Abby full-time as its "Head Librarian." Later this month I'll be hiring two more developers, including a librarian-developer. I'm assembling my dream team, and together we're going to kick this site into the stratosphere. For now, LibraryThing's headquarters are going to be in the apartment above mine, in Portland, ME (so I'll be able to sneak down and give my wife a break with Liam). If you're in the area, stay tuned for the "startup barbeque announcement." At LibraryThing we not only catalog your books, we flip your burgers.
What won't change
LibraryThing's Privacy Policy remains in effect. The crucial part reads:
Other protections:
Lastly, LibraryThing will not be ending its membership fee for libraries over 200 books. I feel $10/year or $25/life is a good price for the service, and users seem to agree. And LibraryThing needs it; Abe gave LibraryThing some expansion capital, not a blank check. Lastly and importantly, paying for something makes you a customer and a member, not a "user." It turns preference into loyalty. You get a stake and a say.
Thanks to all
LibraryThing has grown because users pushed it on their blogs and on their friends. I have a lot of people to thank, starting with OakesSpalding—its first paid user—and effulgent—its first paid user not related to me. The list of long-time supporters is very long. I'll mention LanguageHat, saralaughs, wyvernfriend, stevenmcohen, jkcohen, lilithcat, sunny, MMcM, hippietrail, rjohara, ryn_books, nperrin, btripp, wombat, bluetyson, BoPeep, debra_hamel—the longer I make this the more hurt people will be if they're not on it! My friend ben_a was instrumental in helping me think through business issues and weigh the various "deals." I'm supposed to buy Ben an elaborate gold sculpture. All other LibraryThing supporters should come up to Portland this summer and drop by the office for a beer. We'll call it "customer relations," and expense it.
Lastly, I need to thank my wife Lisa. Without her believing in me, we would have never moved up to Portland for me to work on ideas like LibraryThing. That I managed to develop the site AND arrange the deal owes a lot to her support. Oh, and she managed to have a baby in the middle of it too!
* Particularly after Paul Graham's Startup School, with Olin Shivers's wonderful slide: "Venture Capitalists: soulless agents of Satan or just clumsy rapists?" For a great piece on the growing irrelevance of VC, see Graham's The Venture Capital Squeeze. The irrelevance of VC is very much the LibraryThing story, but whereas Graham presumes hot web ap. startups will get eaten by big corporations for big money—and, one assumes, swiftly lose their cool—Abe provided a better road.
** I also had good conversations with the founders of BookFinder.com, an innovative book-search company (PERL hackers!) Abe recently bought it, and even though they have it all, kept it independent.
*** The response to my April Fool's post about being acquired by Walmart springs to mind…
UPDATE: Abe's press release in Spanish! (Wish LT had more Spanish library coverage...)
LibraryThing is getting a partner. The partner is Abebooks.com, the Canadian company that matches booksellers with booklovers. Abe has taken a minority (40%) share of the company; I retain 60% and majority control. With the financial security and resources Abe brings to the table, LibraryThing's future looks very bright—increased membership, decent servers and two-three employees working on exciting new features.
There is no down side. LibraryThing's stringent Privacy Policy remains intact and in effect. The contract forbids LibraryThing from giving Abe ANY user data—not one user name, real name or email. Reviews will not leave the site without explicit permission (ie., not some buried legal clause). LibraryThing will not suddenly sprout Abe ads all over the place or prevent you from buying from other booksellers. Rather, LibraryThing will provide Abe with certain anonymous and aggregate data, like book recommendations or tag clouds, to help Abe users find books they want. Abe and I think we'll be able to make both our websites better.
I want to make it clear I did not just get rich. (I'm walking away with just enough to cover my legal fees and some new shirts for Book Expo America, where we're announcing this.) I did this to grow the site, and to have some security that I could keep doing what I love for years to come. Before Abe a few bad weeks would have ended development and sent me scrambling for web design work for maple syrup companies. Now I'll have a stable job and a smart, dedicated team helping me make great things.
LibraryThing remains a community of booklovers. I'm grateful for all the help people have given the site, but you're not off the hook. You control the catalog data, not me, and I'm not going to stop asking for your thoughts and ideas—they drive the site forward in a way employees can't. For starters, I want to know how you want LibraryThing to spend its new resources. And just because they'll be three developers doesn't mean there won't be bugs to catch. (There will be three times as many!)
Post about it here. If you want to ask questions, come over to the Google Group.
The back story
Since LibraryThing took off I've been wooed by various entities and characters. Early on I made the decision not to look for venture capital money.* I didn't want to end up owning 5% of an over-funded behemoth, with the 95% owned by people who don't care about books and want to see profits next week or they'll turn the servers off. I also rejected every offer to swallow, popularize and commercialize LibraryThing—the idea being that if LibraryThing were less about book lovers and what they wanted, and more about video games and "special deals," it would somehow be more appealing to "regular" people. R-r-right.
Abe was the first potential acquirer to spot LibraryThing—way back in November. They invited me up to Victoria—Seattle-ish—gave me a tour of their offices—literary quotes painted on the walls—and initiated open-ended conversations about the future of LibraryThing and what Abe and LibraryThing could do together. Hannes (CEO) and Boris (COO) worked hard to find a deal that would be good for both of us.** We eventually found a structure we both liked and wrote a deal around it.
Who are Abebooks
Abebooks (www.abebooks.com) calls itself a "dating site for booksellers and bookbuyers." They list books from over 13,000 independent booksellers around the world, helping you find what you want at a good price. Once just for used, rare and collectible books, they now do new ones as well. They run British, French, German and Spanish sites.
From previous conversations***, I get the impression that many LibraryThing users are suspicious of commercial entities, particularly ones that destroy small businesses. Within this context, Abe is the good guy. Check out this Guardian article about Abe and its competitors—how they've refuted the idea that the internet would destroy small, independent booksellers; instead the booksellers kept their homey stores and found new markets on Abe.
What will change
As of ten minutes ago, LibraryThing finally hired Abby full-time as its "Head Librarian." Later this month I'll be hiring two more developers, including a librarian-developer. I'm assembling my dream team, and together we're going to kick this site into the stratosphere. For now, LibraryThing's headquarters are going to be in the apartment above mine, in Portland, ME (so I'll be able to sneak down and give my wife a break with Liam). If you're in the area, stay tuned for the "startup barbeque announcement." At LibraryThing we not only catalog your books, we flip your burgers.
What won't change
LibraryThing's Privacy Policy remains in effect. The crucial part reads:
"LibraryThing will not sell any personally-identifiable information to any third party. This would be evil, and we are not evil. We reserve the right to sell or give away anonymous or aggregate information."I've been so insistent about this our contract PROHIBITS me from giving them anything with a username, let alone user emails and the like.
Other protections:
- You will not be receiving any emails from Abe unless you consent to it, and we're not asking.
- You will still be able to buy your books from other booksellers.
- LibraryThing will not be plastered with Abe ads.
- We may feature some Abe content--like links to their author interviews--but nothing too intrusive or annoying.
- LibraryThing will never make you "friends" with a softdrink, or even a book.
Lastly, LibraryThing will not be ending its membership fee for libraries over 200 books. I feel $10/year or $25/life is a good price for the service, and users seem to agree. And LibraryThing needs it; Abe gave LibraryThing some expansion capital, not a blank check. Lastly and importantly, paying for something makes you a customer and a member, not a "user." It turns preference into loyalty. You get a stake and a say.
Thanks to all
LibraryThing has grown because users pushed it on their blogs and on their friends. I have a lot of people to thank, starting with OakesSpalding—its first paid user—and effulgent—its first paid user not related to me. The list of long-time supporters is very long. I'll mention LanguageHat, saralaughs, wyvernfriend, stevenmcohen, jkcohen, lilithcat, sunny, MMcM, hippietrail, rjohara, ryn_books, nperrin, btripp, wombat, bluetyson, BoPeep, debra_hamel—the longer I make this the more hurt people will be if they're not on it! My friend ben_a was instrumental in helping me think through business issues and weigh the various "deals." I'm supposed to buy Ben an elaborate gold sculpture. All other LibraryThing supporters should come up to Portland this summer and drop by the office for a beer. We'll call it "customer relations," and expense it.
Lastly, I need to thank my wife Lisa. Without her believing in me, we would have never moved up to Portland for me to work on ideas like LibraryThing. That I managed to develop the site AND arrange the deal owes a lot to her support. Oh, and she managed to have a baby in the middle of it too!
* Particularly after Paul Graham's Startup School, with Olin Shivers's wonderful slide: "Venture Capitalists: soulless agents of Satan or just clumsy rapists?" For a great piece on the growing irrelevance of VC, see Graham's The Venture Capital Squeeze. The irrelevance of VC is very much the LibraryThing story, but whereas Graham presumes hot web ap. startups will get eaten by big corporations for big money—and, one assumes, swiftly lose their cool—Abe provided a better road.
** I also had good conversations with the founders of BookFinder.com, an innovative book-search company (PERL hackers!) Abe recently bought it, and even though they have it all, kept it independent.
*** The response to my April Fool's post about being acquired by Walmart springs to mind…
UPDATE: Abe's press release in Spanish! (Wish LT had more Spanish library coverage...)
posted by Tim at 5:04 PM
58 Comments:
Congratulations. You have a sound philosophy for maintaining the site and deserve any extra success Abe will bring.
I also had good conversations with the founders of BookFinder, an innovative book-search company (PERL hackers!)
...something you got 'ginst Perl there, Tim me boyo? :)
All other LibraryThing supporters should come up to Portland this summer and drop by the office for a beer. We'll call it "customer relations," and expense it.
Love to -- most of my ol' college friends went to work in Redmond, so I'd have two good excuses to visit the NW!
Plus, a long, long time ago, you thanked me for buying a paid acct. when I didn't even have but a handful of books up. I just looked at it as a great investment on the future of what was obviously a labor of love.
I think I should be thanking you, man. :)
re: "tycoon shirt" Gap, unfortunately.
Congratulations! Lots of my books came via abebooks.com, so it seems like a natural combination. (And congratulations for avoiding Vulture Capital, too.)
Portland will be the next Redmond. (There goes my thought of trying to get an apartment there.)
Congrats! I hope you left Abebooks enough incentive to buy you so you will get rich some day.
I like Abebooks, and buy a healthy number of things from them. May I suggest (if Abebooks hasn't already) that it would be great if LT were fully compatible with their system, so I could dump my purchases from Abe to LT as I made them.
It would also be great if LT were compatible with things on Abebooks like showing whether there was a jacket or not, the condition of the jacket and the book, whether it's a first edition, etc.
And, again, congratulations!
Tim ...
CONGRATULATIONS!
AbeBooks sounds like a "best fit" for an investment partner.
And, I'm quite touched to have made the "thanks" list ... I guess some of my bitching and whining must have proved useful!
best,
- BTRIPP
I really hope this deal works out for you, and I'm sure that you've checked it all out thoroughly. But as a long-time ABE-seller, who once derived a large portion of her income from sales on ABE, I can't help feeling some trepidation. Our books come off ABE at the end of month, to join the flood of booksellers that have left ABE in the last three months. Personally, I wouldn't be tempted back into a business relationship with ABE for anything. Long gone are the days when ABE was the booklovers - or booksellers - friend.
Congratulations!
Woodrow: Sorry. Portland, Maine! Portland, Maine is NOT about to become the next Redmond. Finding hackers up here is VERY hard.
Jeremy: Yes, I agree. You should be able to move both ways.
RJO: As an Abebooks user, I'll be interested to know how you think Jeremy's idea should work.
Btripp: Bitching always appreciated.
rivercassini: I'm sorry you had that experience. I think Abe's booksellers will benefit from this deal. As far as the relationship, they've been very straight-dealing with me. But LibraryThing's never been in the bookseller position. (Nor will it!)
Woodrow: Re: "...something you got 'ginst Perl there, Tim me boyo? :)"
No, totally the opposite. I regard the term hacker as a positive: clever programmer.
Perhaps now LT can incorporate the Israeli ULI library catalog (in Hebrew), as I've asked some three or four times in the past but never got a response?
Congratulations Tim!
It sounds like exciting times for LibraryThing. I don't know much about AbeBooks, but my wife is a regular customer.
It's too bad you didn't send out your offer of a beer last month. We were in Portland three weeks ago!
Asaf: Are you sure I didn't respond? I think I did, either here or by email. If not, my apologies.
I'll look into it. One of the first priorities for the first developer is to have character set experience.
Tim
This is really exciting news. Onward and upward -- and thanks for the shout out, too.
Congratulations! :)
Portland, Maine is NOT about to become the next Redmond.
Maybe the next Cupertino? That would rate a bit higher in coolness. Either way, the rents will go up, alas.
As an Abebooks user, I'll be interested to know how you think Jeremy's idea [did you mean a_musing's idea?] should work.
a_musing wrote: May I suggest (if Abebooks hasn't already) that it would be great if LT were fully compatible with their system, so I could dump my purchases from Abe to LT as I made them. It would also be great if LT were compatible with things on Abebooks like showing whether there was a jacket or not, the condition of the jacket and the book, whether it's a first edition, etc.
Since I lean heavily to the library-geek side, my own interest is always in seeing LT maximize its MARC capabilities, so I myself wouldn't be interested in taking ABE records directly into LT (that's analogous to taking Amazon records). *But* I am very interested in being able to incorporate in an ordered way some of the condition and provenance data that ordinarily does appear in abebooks records, but is usually not seen in generic library catalogs. (This is the kind of rare book data you may see in special collections catalogs; that's very interesting to me.)
Here's a proposal to float for discussion: a small "advanced description" feature within LT. On the "Edit" page, put a toggle that opens up a couple of additional fields, and each one can have a drop-down menu that would let you select a particular MARC note field to add to your record (with each given a user-friendly name, but coded with a real MARC field number, for universal compatibility). For example, notes about the dust jacket or binding (which I would sometimes like to record also) belong in MARC 563 "Binding Information"; information about provenance and former owners (which I have been recording sometimes in LT, and which often appears in abebooks records) goes in MARC 561 "Ownership and Custodial History"; some people have been talking about putting an abstract of a work into LT's review fields -- that information would be properly placed in MARC 520, "Summary etc."; some people are interested in listing all the titles within a short-story anthology -- that's the information that goes in MARC 505 "Formatted Contents Note"; and so on.
This may sound complicated, but I'm envisioning a simple interface to support it, and one that only appears if people choose it (regular users will not even notice). In WordPress, there is an "Add Custom Field" function that let's you create any number of custom fields for your blog, and it generates a pull-down menu for the field titles. Something just like this could support addition of controlled MARC fields to contain additional data, and the way it works in WordPress could almost be taken directly into LT, with the selectable fields already specified in advance. (I would not suggest letting people create any old field they want. I really think the long-range future success of LT will depend on universal compatibility via MARC, and that's going to be fundamental to any LT-Pro edition.) You could begin with a merger of the fields abebooks provides to its sellers, modified to be MARC-interpretable (an improvement that might help abebooks also).
In conversation here (or on Thingology) we could pick out a dozen MARC fields that would be likely to be popular (like 563 for bindings and 561 for provenance) for possible inclusion into a "advanced options" toggle. I should say that part of my motivation for thinking along these lines is to avoid reinventing the wheel: if MARC already has a mechanism for describing dust jackets (say), why come up with another one ourselves, one that a year from now we may wish was compatible with some other existing database but isn't because it was home-brewed.
For an outline of all the various Note fields in MARC (5xx), there two pages are invaluable:
http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdnot1.html
http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdnot2.html
I'm betting this will work. It sounds as though you've thought it out thoroughly and have worked out a deal that will benefit LT and its members. I see very little, if any, downside.
Congrats!
Congratulations Tim! You could have taken an easier way out, so I hope that you're properly rewarded by trying to plan for a longer term future.
I think rjo's idea sounds good. I think that adhering to standards wherever they exist will help with adoption and increasing the value of the data you're aggregating here.
it sounds like an excellent move and i wish you all the best with it
i love abebooks too and spend too much time and money there *sigh*
this website is beginning to feel less like a place to list books than part of an ongoing project which continues to get more interesting
As rjo says the formatted contents are sometimes in Marc 505 - if the original cataloguer bothered to input them. In my catalogue the majority do not have a Marc 505 field.
However even when the Formatted Contents Note is there it is not enough IMO.
I would like to see tagging, commenting and reviews of individual short stories.
I would like to be able to search for a short story and see all collections and anthologies it is in.
I would like an Author page to (optionally) show all their short works and each short work to have it's own page (just like long works do).
In summary, I want short stories to become first class objects in the database.
The above isn't possible by just having a database field for the Marc 505 field. However that doesn't mean that LT cannot automatically parse that field if it exists to populate the data, or reconstruct to provide a more standard 'export' record if desired.
> how you want LibraryThing to spend its new resources.
Additional fields would be a very nice start. rjo's idea sounds elegant (a pulldown menu with the available 5xx fields, with an easily understandable name).
More author / editor fields is something some of us are waiting for, too...
Good luck, future LT team :-)
sunny
Hi! I know this isn't the right place to ask, but I really don't find anywhere eles, except the Google group and I'm not a member.
If someone please can help me... I'm adding some books and have now uploaded 106, as you can see here:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Fantasma
With a free account I can add up to 200 books, but when I try to add more, I get the message "Free accounts are limited to 200 books. Upgrade to a paid account and catalog as many as you like. Paid accounts are $10/year or $25/lifetime." and it doesn't let me add books! If I try one by one using the ISBN I get the same message but if I try manually I CAN add the book. This doesn't make sense nor can I add 90 books totally by hand...
Can someone tell me if this is a bug or something? I'm trying since yesterday.... :(
Thanks
Now I deleted all my books. Tried uploading them again and I get the same message!
Some help, please??????
Fantasma: Sorry about that--but good bug catching :). I reset your number; let me know if you have any problems.
Congratulations!
I'm an occasional customer and regular lurker at Abebooks, this seems like a sound combinaton to me.
Good luck.
j.
Bad bugs!! ;o)
Thanks Tim, I'll try again!
Congrats on the deal Tim!
I only discovered AbeBooks through joining LibraryThing and it looks
like this helps them, the inde booksellers, and more importantly
LibraryThing!
Thanks also for the blog mention. Am happy to have contributed. ryn
Tim, it's me again. Still not working.....
Tim, congratulations! Thanks for being someone we can count on to maintain the site's integrity, while adding all those important things - not least, stability - that a 'corporate entity' can provide. I'm one of those glad to make use of such entities, but ultimately not trustful of them; yet I appreciate the way you've done this, the pains taken.
I'm glad we don't have to share you with maple syrup companies! :) I'm even glad that the membership structure remains the same. In financial AND social terms, I'm in complete agreement there.
Let me officially chime in with andyl on short works (plays and even long poems, as well as stories) getting equal value. I've wanted that all along.
LT always has been an ongoing project which continues to get more interesting (to steal bibliobibuli's line). As I've said so many times before, I look forward to the ways it will grow.
RJO:
Thanks - you translated the gist of what I was thinking into Geek very well, and took it a step or two further.
Let me explain the practical side of what I'd find exciting about the additional data: I have a bunch of old and rare books, and haven't paid much attention to total precision in cataloging them to date. BUT, sometimes I like to cull these, selling off some to feed my habit of buying more, and having all the data in one place to list on Abebooks (or ebay) would be really useful. Likewise, when I buy from abebooks, it would be nice to move all the data in easily.
Best,
Sam (A_musing)
Hm. . . Is there a way to add a field for "replacement value"? (If that's already there, just educate this 'ole Grandma how to use it.) My household insurance covers replacement value, but I don't think my insurance guy knew what was really here until I found Library Thing and started listing. Anyway, Congratulations to you! And thank you for adding great value to my life in helping me organize my collection.
A beer and an expertly flipped burger sound great, but how do I get from S. Cal to Portland, ME? Google says 3092 miles, 2 days, 3 hours? I'll be in Cincinatti next week, more than halfway. Could be some excess mileage on the rental car. Myabe next time.
IMHO, I think you've done a great thing. I like ABE's service, and have been doing business with them for something like 8 years.
I wish I had the skills to work with you on this project. I think it's very worthwhile, and in the spirit of the "old time" developers. I know you'll look after it very well.
Dear Tim,
When you first posted the news about the "Abe" deal, there was no way to post a comment. Matter of fact, I don't even think there was a time stamp. All I now is , it was in the early morning hours, my time. So I was not able to post till now.Whats really sad is, you or somebody else will tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.
That always tells me if people are paying attention or not.
So...now you've decided to do business with a conpany thats based out of Canada.
I think you need a gentle reminder of what's been going on in Canada these last five years.
Outside of the writers own opions, the vast majority of statements in the following artical are well documented.
So now Librarything is is involved with a business in a country with serious privacy and freedom issues.
Well, It was great wile it lasted.
___________________________________
Canada Destroys a Defender of Freedom
By Henry Makow Ph.D.
June 29, 2003
Last week, Canada's Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski was hounded from office amid a firestorm of allegations about expense account abuses.
Press hacks and politicians continue to nip at his heels accusing him of misleading parliament and "intimidating" his staff. One Member of Paliament suggested he deserved jail time or even execution.
Why such ferocity?
George Radwanski had been a valiant and eloquent opponent of the Canadian government's new initiatives for repressive public surveillance. His courageous leadership is the reason he has been tarred and feathered. The real scoundrels are the Canadian politicians and press who have abjectly betrayed the public trust.
In January 2003, Radwanski warned Canadians that the government "regrettably has lost its moral compass." Although Canada hasn't had a terrorist attack, planned initiatives will result in the loss "not only of privacy rights that we take for granted but also of ... freedom as we now know it."
He warned "September 11 is being invoked as a kind of magic incantation to stifle debate, disparage critical analysis and persuade us that we suddenly live in a new world where the old rules cannot apply."
"The Government is doing all this in blatant, open and repeated disregard of the concerns that it is my duty to express..." Radwanski said. He revealed that American pressure was to blame, and urged Canadians to assert their sovereignty.
" The right of privacy is at the core of the basic freedoms of our society. Freedom of speech, of thought, of association, to name just a few, are grounded in the idea that we have a private sphere of thought and action that is our business and nobody else's -- not our neighbours', not our employers', not some telemarketer's, and certainly not the state's. In Canada today that fundamental human right is under unprecedented assault."
He foresaw the potential uses of surveillance for political repression. While only thousands march against globalization today, what if millions wanted to demonstrate in the future?
Radwanski compared the "war on terror" to Orwell's 1984, "which takes place against the background of a mysterious chronic war in which it is never clear just who the enemy is or who is winning or losing."
His office was becoming "an international leader in privacy protection" and a thorn in George Bush's side. It focused opposition to the monitoring of communications, biometric passports and identity cards, video surveillance and genetic databases.
"My trips to the US enabled me to raise awareness among American decision-makers about Canada's different approach to privacy rights," Radwanski said in his resignation statement. "Several members of the US Congress expressed an interest in creating an American position of Privacy Commissioner along the Canadian model."
This resignation statement has been removed from the Privacy Commission web site. Soviet-style, Radwanski is already becoming a non-person.
CANADA'S DISGRACE
In a supposedly civilized country, George Radwanski was not given a fair and impartial hearing. No one in authority came to his defence. No one made the obvious connection between his sensitive political stand and his removal. This is the state of public discourse today.
The whole episode smacks of a carefully orchestrated operation. Politicians of all stripes and virtually the whole press corps fell into line like geese. Typical of the press' prescience were disingenuous editorials like "Gorg'in George Had to Go" and "Radwanski's Vainglorious Reign Crumbles."
The Toronto Star had an editorial Sunday (June 29) entitled "Good from Radwanski." Did it take note of his warnings? No. The "good" referred to more scrutiny of future appointments like his and protection for the "whistle blowers" who revealed his expense account anomalies.
The vicious "swarming" of a dedicated public defender sets a bad precedent. It suggests the fate of anybody with influence that stands in Big Brother's way.
We may assume that any target of media defamation is a genuine defender of democratic ideals.
In the years prior to the murderous "Reign of Terror" and the French Revolution, the Jacobins used vile and unscrupulous smear campaigns like this one to eliminate opponents. This process was known as "L'infamie."
RADWANSKI'S ERRORS
A former Editor of the Toronto Star, George Radwanski was a speechwriter and consultant to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien who appointed him to the seven-year term as Privacy Commissioner in 2000.
Radwanski made good use of his connections. Prior to accepting his $210,000 per annum job in 2000, he declared bankruptcy and was forgiven 85% of $580,000 in tax arrears.
Although these write-offs are pretty common, this one has suddenly become an issue.
Radwanski also made good use of his government expense account. In 2002-03, he and his (female) Communications Director apparently spent $276,000 on travel, including 10 foreign trips. In one instance, the pair is accused of going to Paris just five days after returning from there. Radwanski is also accused of paying up to $450 for business lunches and trying to mislead a Parliamentary Committee about these excesses.
Radwanski travelled for an average of 30 formal speeches a year and claims his conduct and expenses can be justified. "I have at all times conducted myself with honor and integrity," he said.
He asked for an impartial review by the Auditor General but was denied. I am "unable to properly defend myself and set the record straight because of the process deliberately prevents me from doing so," he said.
The Canadian political class is notorious for feasting at the public trough. Many examples could be cited. The Prime Minister secured a large interest-free loan for a hotel with which he had personal dealings. A former Public Works minister gave $2 million in questionable contracts to an advertising firm with close party ties. He got an ambassadorship.
The cost of Canada's unpopular and unnecessary gun registry was supposed to be $2 million. Instead it has ballooned to $1 billion, mostly boondoggle and patronage. Gary Webster, its former head, piled up more than $209,000 in travel and hotel bills commuting between Edmonton and Ottawa over two years. He still has a senior government position.
Radwanski's excesses, real or imagined, are pretty common. He has been targeted for his political stand. His possible indiscretions pale in comparison to the vital work he was doing. While Canadians focus on lunch money, we are losing our priceless birthright and that of future generations.
DOING HIS JOB TOO WELL
George Radwanski doubtlessly became a marked man in January when he delivered his 2001-2002 Annual Report. Here are some excerpts:
"The fundamental human right of privacy in Canada is under assault as never before. Unless the Government of Canada is quickly dissuaded from its present course by Parliamentary action and public insistence, we are on a path that may well lead to the permanent loss not only of privacy rights but also important elements of freedom as we now know it...
The Government is, quite simply, using September 11 as an excuse for new [surveillance databases] that cannot be justified by the requirements of anti-terrorism and that, indeed, have no place in a free and democratic society...
These are not abstract or theoretical concerns. If these measures are allowed to go forward... there is a very real prospect that before long our lives here in Canada will look like this:
All our travels outside Canada will be systematically recorded, tracked and analyzed for signs of anything that the Government might find suspicious or undesirable. "Big Brother" dossiers of personal information about every law-abiding Canadian... will be kept by the federal Government and will be available to virtually every federal department and agency...
Any time we travel within Canada, we will have to identify ourselves to police so that their computers can check whether we are wanted for anything or are otherwise of interest to the state.
Police and security will be able to access records of every e-mail we send and every cellular phone call we make. Information on what we read on the Internet, every Web site and page we visit, will likewise be readily available to government authorities.
We will all be fingerprinted or retina-scanned by the Government. This biometric information will be on compulsory national ID cards that will open the way to being stopped in the streets by police and required to identify ourselves on demand.
Our movements through the public streets will be relentlessly observed through proliferating police video surveillance cameras. Eventually, these cameras will likely be linked to biometric face-recognition technologies that will match our on-screen images to file photos -- from such sources as drivers' licences, passports or ID cards -- and enable the police to identify us by name and address as we go about our law-abiding business in the streets.
Now I am informing Parliament that ... governmental disregard for crucially important privacy rights is moving beyond isolated instances and becoming systematic.
The bottom line is this: If we have to live our lives weighing every action, every communication, every human contact, wondering what agents of the state might find out about it, analyze it, judge it, possibly misconstrue it, and somehow use it to our detriment, we are not truly free.
That sort of life is characteristic of totalitarian countries, not a free and open society like Canada. But that is where we are inexorably headed, if the Government's current initiatives are allowed to proceed."
CONCLUSION
No one can read this excerpt without being ashamed. As Canadians, we have behaved like little children. We have clapped while our champion has been struck down and humiliated. We will discover that our freedom is a lot easier to squander than it is to regain.
We don't recognize the danger facing us because conditions are still pretty good. But these measures are not planned for good times. They are designed for the bad times that are in store.
Sept. 11 was an audacious act on the part of the world's financial elite. It served the double purpose of providing an excuse to subjugate the Moslem world while at the same time creating an enemy to justify political repression at home.
The crumbling twin towers signalled the final stage in a long-term plan for a world police state governed by the superrich. The New World Order is the work of the devil, and Canadians brought it a step closer last week.
Henry Makow, is the inventor of the board game Scruples, and the author of A Long Way to go for a Date. He received his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto. He welcomes your feedback and ideas at henry@savethemales.ca.
"The contract forbids LibraryThing from giving Abe ANY user data"
Good for you. Your hard work and dedication has been noticed. Here's hoping the collaboration with ABEbooks will be all you expect.
Wow. Well, it always WAS possible to comment—as the timestamps on the comments indicate, the first of which was 12 minute after the post. If I were interested in restricting comments, I wouldn't have run this blog for so long, racking up literally thousands of comments. Nor would I run a Google group, or publish my email.
Personally and professionally I have no opinion about the Canadian politics you reference. I know that Abe will not have the sort of data that worries you, and that LibraryThing is located in Portland, ME.
Let me see if I can clarify.
There was no way to post.I'm not making this stuff up.
There was no link at the bottom of the page when I accessed it.Around 5 A.M. Pacific Time.Give or take minutes, here or there.
I can't imagine I'm not making my self clear.
My best guess is (After I had refreshed the page several times) is that you forgot to code something or other.
This is simply a curtisy post regarding that particuler moment, on your Abe deal post, at the bottom of the page.
Something scewy with the net? Maybe.
I can't imagine you don't get this.
The only downside about helping people out like this is, the next time it happens and they notice it, you don't get to watch them kick them selves halfway around the block realizeing that someone mentioned it before, the first time it happened.
Not a complaint, just an observation.
Next time I just won't bother, whats the point.
Oh, for Pete's sake. LibraryThing itself is located in a country with "serious privacy and freedom issues". I didn't see one single thing in the lengthy article posted by anonymous that implicates ABEbooks in any privacy violations.
And if you google your source, it will become obvious that he is a complete loon. Among other things, he thinks 9/11 was a "hoax . . . perpetrated by Illuminati bankers." I would place absolutely no credence in anything he says.
Tim, just go on with what you were doing and ignore the blather.
Ok, I figured it out.
I took another look at the post and this is what happened.
The post was so long, that when I got down to the end of the first part where it says "Post about it here. If you want to ask questions, come over to the (Google Blog Link)", I thought that was the compleat post.
so..consequintly, I did'nt think it was possible to post.
I rarely incounter posts this long with breaks in them , if at all.
I'm sure you see where the confusion was.
I humbly beg you pardon.
noblesse oblige.
I think we all know who is really behind this deal:
LibraryThing = 12
Canada = 6
12 + 6 = 18 = 6+6+6
Could it be, oh I don't know, maybe ... Satan!!
Jack Van Impe, is that you?
you mademe laugh!
nice tweek.
Van Imp still alive?
Good idea. Living 100+ km from good secondhand bookshops I use abe all the time.
Tim, it's me again. I don't know if you saw my previous post (posted yesterday at 10:29AM), but the problem with my catalog continues. I get the same message and I can't add books.
Is it possible for you to reset all my stats, maybe? And delete the books I have now, no problem with starting over (again...). I just didn't want to have to create another account...
Thanks!! :)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Fantasma
Wow this is really nifty. I can't tell you how many times I've joined something or another only to have it disappear due to lack of liquid fundage.
And really who cares what I read, the government is watching me right now, because you know when you go the dentist they plant small nanos in your teeth. You do know that............
Stephania: In the works. I didn't hire Abby for her brains or dedication. I did it for her iPod.
Fantasma: I'm stuck at the Book Expo America conference, without access to the right database. Just open another account and add books. I'll add them to your "real" account when you need me to. My apologies for the problem. I can't really understand it from here, but I'm sure it's simple.
Thanks tim! I'll do that and then let you know.
CinciNNATI CinciNNATI CinciNNATI CinciNNATI CinciNNATI CinciNNATI CinciNNATI CinciNNATI
3,000 miles to Portland? My rough calculations indicate that it'd be around 13,000 miles for me. Guess you'll just have to have a beer for me. ;)
Blame Canada?
Not that the USA, UK and Australia aren't moving in a fascist direction, either.
I have not used abe for very long, what is badderer now about them than it used to be?
tim, it's the annoying chick again... I've created a new account (fantasmaa) and started adding books, and it happened the same thing. I know have a little more then 100 books there and it doesn't let me add more, I get the message about the paid account...
I was thinking that eventually I'd go to a paid account, but wanted to try 1st how it all worked, now I'm just starting to give up...
I have been buying books from Half.com (an EBAY company) for the last few years. Several have been from Abebooks, which I thought was a single store. It seems like the world of used books is more complicated than I thought.
BTW, what is the address of Librarything in Portland? I will be in the area over the summer and would like to check it out.
3000 or 13,000 miles; it doesn't look like I'll get to Maine anytime soon. I expect Tim (or Tycoon Tim, as I call him since he started wearing that shirt) will have more opportunities to come to my neck of the woods than the other way 'round. I mean, surely the founder of the LT conglomerate and Head Mucky Muck Thingamabarian will be at the Los Angeles Book Extravaganza (or whatever they call that thing at UCLA every year) in 2007. Heck, I'll buy him a beer and a burger if he shows up!
Seriously, watching LT develop is a lot of fun. I use it simply to list my books and to see what others have in libraries similar to mine that I don't. The library science knowledge that Tim and the rest of you have exposed me to is interesting as well. Who knew all this when I was shelving books at my local branch library after school way back in about 1957?
I'm coming in late, but ... congratulations, Tim!
Abebooks is a highly regarded local company (they happen to be located in my city), my experience with them as a book buyer has been consistently positive, and I've heard nothing but good things about them in general. (No, I don't work for them ;-)
Something that the non-Canucks on this list probably won't know: Abebooks made the 2005 list of Canada's Top 100 Employers. Not bad at all.
Incidentally, Abebooks used to be called ABEbooks - this is back when the company was semi-acronymical (ABE stands for Advanced Book Exchange). Thought I'd mention this in case people think the company's named after Abe Lincoln or summat...
I'm a librarian, reader and great fan of both Abe Books and Bookfinder. Good job with this Thing, I love it. Now I guess I need to send a check...
Is there a way to add a field for "replacement value"? (If that's already there, just educate this 'ole Grandma how to use it.)
Love to -- most of my ol' college friends went to work in Redmond, so I'd have two good excuses to visit the NW!
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