--- Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 11:44:17 -0500 Subject: Re: FC: Censorhappy Wash. politicos meet the law of unintended consequences From: "R. Polk Wagner" <polkat_private> To: <declanat_private> Message-ID: <B8CA0411.2A95%polkat_private> On 3/29/02 9:30 AM, "Declan McCullagh" <declanat_private> wrote: > --- > > Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 07:18:18 -0500 > To: declanat_private, politechat_private > From: Duncan Frissell <frissellat_private> > Subject: Re: FC: Washington state goes censorhappy, bans publishing police > info > > At 12:28 AM 3/29/02 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote: >> BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON: >> {+ NEW SECTION. +} Sec. 1. A person or organization shall not,with >> the intent to harm or intimidate, sell, trade, give, publish,distribute, >> or otherwise release the residential address, residential telephone >> number, birthdate, or social security number of any law >> enforcement-related, corrections officer-related, or court-related >> employee or volunteer, or someone with a similar name, and categorize >> them as such, without the express written permission of the employee or >> volunteer unless specifically exempted by law or court order. > > I guess that means that the law enforcers of Washington State will no > longer be able to have credit records at the big three credit reporting > agencies since much of that information is obtained and transferred without > permission. > Umm. Not that this seems like a good law, but it does on its face above require an "intent to harm or intimidate" to trigger its application -- so I doubt that credit agencies have much to worry about. It's clearly aimed at "troublemakers" and their ilk. Not that that makes it any better, of course. Aside: Its amusing that the law allows the release of info -- for the "intent to harm or intimidate" -- if you get written permission. Let's guess how many folks will give written permission for the dissemination of their personal information to assist in harming or intimidating them . . . -- ===================================== R. Polk Wagner University of Pennsylvania Law School 3400 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 http://www.law.upenn.edu/polk/ ===================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Politech dinner in SF on 4/16: http://www.politechbot.com/events/cfp2002/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Apr 02 2002 - 07:20:12 PST