Digital material and post September 11th heightened security measures

[Ignasi Clemente]

Dear friends and colleagues,

I am coming back to the US after having carried out my fieldwork in Europe.
Most of my data is on digital video format (mini dv) and no matter how many
times I ask the police at the airport, they refuse to tell me whether the
new securities measures after September 11 are going to damage my data or
not. They say that despite the full-blast double scan all luggage is
subjected to now (checked-in and carry-on), it should not damage my
fieldwork digital data. But they keep saying that accidents happen, and
that they take no responsibility for any damage. I am leaving a set of
back-up copies in Europe. Still, I'd like to know if any of you has had any
problems flying carrying digital data (on tapes or on zip disks) before or
after September 11 (so I can deal better with my anxiety of losing my
data). In addition to this, I asked British Airways if a letter written by
my university will help me with either excess luggage or avoiding
full-blast scanning of my digital tapes. The answer was that it would make
no difference: everybody gets scanned rigorously.

Thank you very much and I hope you can help me.
Ignasi Clemente