Judge Robert H. Alsdorf of King County, Washington believes it is illegal to republish Social Security numbers taken from public court records. I'm including in this post a few SSNs from the justicefiles.org site: >Blinsink Steven Harold 239-41-9528 Aug-70 Patrol Police Officer IV >Beath Brian B. 537-46-2392 Feb-47 Police Support Officer $2,619.00 >Coleman Ronald L. 536-68-6894 Apr-59 Master Police Officer $4,690.00 I believe that same information is available from public court records and other lawful public sources, and I'm including it here for journalistic purposes -- to demonstrate what kind of information the site in question has. This post will be archived at http://www.politechbot.com/p-02008.html I invite the city of Kirkland, copied above, to respond. -Declan ********* Decision: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/justicefiles.opinion.051001.html Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 16:32:53 -0700 To: declanat_private From: elena luisa garella <garellaat_private> Subject: Very interesting ruling in Kirkland cop case! King County Superior Court Judge Robert Alsdorf ruled that the defendants must take down the SSNs only from the Kirkland portion of www.justicefiles.org. Everything else can stay up. His reasoning is VERY interesting-- even novel-- the judge expands legal protections for identifying personal information (under a invasion of privacy theory) in order to respond to the fact that the internet is a new medium, far more immediate and permanent than traditional fora . . . In other words, the Judge appears to conclude that fact that the speech is on the Internet means that it can be treated differently than if it were in pamphlets, spoken from a soapbox, in the newspaper, etc. The ruling is attached. Law Office of Elena Luisa Garella 1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1730 Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 689-2142 FAX: 382-9261 NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential information. If you have received it in error, please advise the sender by reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you. ********* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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