Tag: law

Can’t say I’m surprised

via torrentfreak.com

According to torrentfreak.com, a raft of music and video have been downloaded through IP addresses associated with several major content owners (Sony Pictures, Fox Entertainment, NBC Universal, etc.). These are, of course, the companies that are lobbying hard for the right to shut down websites accused of promoting or encouraging copyright infringement, without actually having to prove the infringement in court; the same companies that send the authorities after suspected downloaders of infringing materials; the same companies that have tried to bolster their failing business model by assuming their customers are all criminals.

My favorite part of this story is the “our IP address was spoofed” defense being raised by at least one of these companies that were caught red-handed swiping mass quantities of other people’s content. Because, as the article points out, if IP-spoofing is so easy and widespread, then those content owners are going to see a rash of accused infringers raising that very same defense. Good luck and have at it!

Courageous Illinois Man Faces 75 Years In Prison For Recording Cops – YouTube

via youtube.com

Hot on the heels of the First Circuit Court of Appeals decision that citizens have an absolute constitutional right to record the police in public, we find that a guy in a town in downstate Illinois, about 200 miles south of Chicago, is facing five counts of Class One felony “eavesdropping” for doing just that, with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison per count – i.e., up to 75 years in prison. The Illinois AG has told the judge in a hearing that there is no constitutional right to record the police.

The guy is being represented gratis by an ACLU lawyer, and he has refused a plea deal that would have given him probation on a lesser count. (He refused in part because he would have to give up a separate, but related, lawsuit against the city he lives in.)

I am all in favor of police being able to control the scene, and people (journalists, civilians) not interfering with police activity. But it is absolutely clear that laws such as this, as broadly applied as they tend to be where they are still on the books, are used to intimidate citizens and cover up law enforcement errors and excesses. I hope this thing eventually goes up to the Seventh Circuit and they come down in line with the First Circuit.

A Victory for Recording in Public! | Citizen Media Law Project

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via citmedialaw.org

So this is really good news. A First Circuit federal appeals court has stated clearly and unequivocally that citizens have a right to videotape police officers conducting police activities in public. I hope the word of this spreads so that others refuse to be intimidated by police. (Actually, I would hope that police departments around the country would instruct their officers not to bother people who are videotaping public police activity unless they are actually interfering.)