After a few revisions and some much needed clarification, the Madison City Council passed the textbook theft ordinance last week. Misinterpretation due to confusion caused this editorial board to originally oppose the ordinance. However, now that the language has cleared up, we offer our support of the ordinance as written.
The ordinance states, ""No secondhand article dealer, secondhand jewelry dealer, secondhand textbook dealer or pawnbroker may engage in a transaction of purchase, receipt or exchange of any secondhand article, secondhand textbook or secondhand jewelry from a customer without first securing adequate identification from the customer.""
Our original confusion came with the phrasing of the word ""purchase."" We thought the ordinance required the bookstore to take the information of every purchaser, thus creating a database of what students read. This was not the case, and the ordinance only applies when students sell books back.
In addition, we originally believed the city would keep this list of books, but it is actually the responsibility of each bookstore. Only when the police receive a report of a stolen book will they ask to see this list, and even then, each bookstore can refuse to hand it over without a warrant.
Another problem many saw with the ordinance was that a student selling a book to a bookstore might have to provide a Social Security number. A change in language made it clear that only a student ID or a driver's license number is required—something the University Bookstore already requires on buyback and other businesses, such as the Home Depot, also require.
These additional provisions ease our concern that the ordinance would violate students' privacy rights. Instead of a program filled with governmental red tape and privacy violations, the ordinance can now effectively fight textbook theft and do what it was meant to do—protect students—with little or no invasion of privacy.
However, we do still recognize potential flaws in the ordinance. A student selling a stolen textbook at the beginning or end of a semester could easily get lost in the fray due to the high volume of students selling back books at this time. The City Council should keep this in mind.
Finally, we applaud Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, for seeking feedback from students and cleaning up the language of the ordinance. If he keeps working diligently on behalf of students, the future of the council leadership with both Judge and Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, looks bright.
