This idea, gaining some currency in Europe, would require government to get deeply into the control of privately published information content [Adam Thierer, Scott Greenfield]
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Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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This idea, gaining some currency in Europe, would require government to get deeply into the control of privately published information content [Adam Thierer, Scott Greenfield]
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“An actress has sued Amazon.com for more than $1m after her age was posted on its Internet Movie Database. The unnamed actress says the website misused her legal date of birth after she signed up to the IMDbPro service in 2008.” [BBC]
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Ninth Circuit chief judge and libertarian favorite Alex Kozinski gave the annual B. Kenneth Simon lecture earlier this month at Cato’s annual Constitution Day Conference. [YouTube]
Lawmakers in at least three states have proposed new laws criminalizing the taking of photos on farms without permission of the owner — and sometimes going much further than that, too. The idea is to stop animal-welfare activists from compiling unauthorized footage of allegedly inhumane conditions. I comment on that — and on some related photography and farm issues — at Cato at Liberty.
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The so-called superinjunction is a gag order that “prevents the media from even reporting that an injunction was obtained,” and runs against the public generally rather than merely organizations named in the legal action. In Britain, which lacks a tradition equivalent to our First Amendment, courts regularly hand down these orders on the grounds of protecting litigants’ privacy, and controversy is mounting as a result. [Guardian and editorial, Kampfner/Independent, Katya Wachtel/Business Insider (on RBS executive case)]
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“The Electronic Frontier Foundation joined civil liberties and privacy groups in criticizing a proposal from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission that would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID’s for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request. … Events with strong cultural, ideological, and political components are frequently held at venues that would be affected by these rules.” [EFF]
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Another twist on the assertion that state laws against wiretapping and unauthorized recording make it unlawful to record the cops: police in the town of Weare, N.H. charged a man with wiretapping after he placed a cellphone call during a traffic stop “because the officer’s voice could be heard in the background of his phone call.” [Lowering the Bar]
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The Emory law and economics expert, newly launched as a blogger at Truth on the Market, has some thoughts about Internet commerce and the (sometimes illusory) sense of being watched.
The lawsuits against store chains over inquiries in check-out lines were just the start: one lawyer has sued gas station operators on the theory that it violates state law to ask drivers at the pump to key in their zip code to verify their credit cards. [Russell Jackson, earlier]
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Lawyers jump into action with multiple suits after the California Supreme Court decides it’s a violation of state consumer privacy law to ask customers for their zip code at the checkout. [L.A. Times, Recorder, WSJ Law Blog] Ira Stoll discusses the silliness of the purported consumer protection rationale. More: Coyote.
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A judge has dismissed a privacy claim by a gun instructor who shot himself during a safety demonstration; video of the incident later turned up at The Smoking Gun and elsewhere. [Lowering the Bar; compare the Fountain Lady's video-privacy grievance.]
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It could send you to prison. [New York Times; Radley Balko] Related: Jim Harper, Cato.
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After a video went viral showing a distracted shopper walking into a mall fountain, it’s not clear that much of anyone would have known that the blurry figure was Ms. Marrero. They know now, though, as her lawyer talks about holding someone “responsible” for the less-than-professional reaction of security, which included laughing and not going up to her to confirm that she wasn’t hurt. [Mediaite, Balasubramani, Salon, Popehat, MSNBC "Technolog", Mystal]
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