FC: Gary Condit reportedly backs down, lets eBay auction proceed

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Condit stories (including the eBay auction report) from the archives:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=condit

-Declan

*******

Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2001 08:26:35 -0700
From: "Da'ud X Mohammed" <webmaster () ocnsignal com>
Organization: Oregon Coast News Signal
To: declan () well com
Subject: [Fwd: condit levy news]
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
 boundary="------------29147FF78F402510AE9F45CF"
X-UIDL: 2ec3323510c6fd7b43f915daf1bbf267
Status: U

Hullo Declan,

While the Chandra Levy Gary Condit story has (nearly) died on the
Internet vine as a romance gone terribly wrong, here's what's left of
the Condit being a jerk story...

wa-salaam

dxm

*********
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 06:04:13 EDT
Subject: Re: condit levy news and CNN
To: webmaster () ocnsignal com

Here's the latest news.

DATE: August 8, 2001
TO: News Editor
FROM: Terry Aley
RE: CONDIT RETRACTS ACTION ON EBAY ART AUCTION

Congressman Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres) requested two weeks ago that eBay, Inc.
-- the on-line auction house -- end the auction of an artwork entitled "NEW
ABSTRACT ART-CHANDRA LEVY & GARY CONDIT."

Late Tuesday night, Rep. Condit retracted his request. eBay told the artist,
Terry Aley of Overland Park, KS, that "After review of this auction, the VeRO
member [Rep. Condit] that requested its removal has agreed to reinstate it."

The incident began on July 23, when eBay told Mr. Aley that his auction was
"ended at the request of Representative Gary A. Condit, a member of eBay's
Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program, because they filed a sworn statement
that it offers a product or contains material which violates their copyright,
trademark or other rights."

The basis for Condit's action was unexplained until a July 26 report in the
Los Angeles Times, quoting "eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove."  Pursglove told
Times staff writer David Streitfeld, "We were contacted by a representative
from the congressman's office in Washington. . . . He believed the item was
'a violation of the congressman's right of publicity, based upon the use of
his name or image,'"

California's "Right of Publicity" statute (Civil Code Section 3344, enacted
in 1971) makes it a crime to "Use of Another's Name, Voice, Signature,
Photograph, or Likeness in Advertising or Soliciting Without Prior Consent."

In an August 2 letter to Rep. Condit, Mr. Aley stated, "Mr. Condit's name and
likeness were not "directly connected with ... commercial sponsorship or with
... paid advertising" in my painting. I believe that California Civil Code
Section 3344 does not apply in this case, and is not sufficient cause for Mr.
Condit's action."

Mr. Aley further advised Rep. Condit, "I believe Mr. Condit violated my
rights in a number of ways, and unless he publicly apologizes and retracts
his attempt to suppress the sale of my painting, it is my intention to file
suit under one or more statutes (see 18 USC 241 and 18 USC 242), and to
release to the press information concerning the filing of that suit. Please
let me hear from you by August 8, 2001."

The two Federal Laws are both designed to protect Americans from being denied
their rights.

The first makes it a crime for anyone acting as a public official, such as a
US Congressman, to deny Constitutional and other rights to a US citizen. The
Statute (18 USC 242 -- Deprivation of rights under color of law) provides
specific penalties for violators: "...shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than one year, or both...."

The second Federal Law (18 USC 241 --  Conspiracy against rights) makes it a
crime when "two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or
intimidate..." any person from "...free exercise or enjoyment of any right or
privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States."
This statute also provides specific penalties for violators, "...shall be
fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both."

The action of Rep. Condit alone could be subject to Section 242, while the
collective action of his staff could be considered a "conspiracy" under
Section 241.

Apparently, Rep. Condit and his staff agree with this analysis.

Mr. Aley's letter asked Rep. Condit to publicly apologize and to retract his
attempt to suppress the sale of the artwork on eBay, and that Rep. Condit do
so by August 8.

Late in the evening on August 7, Rep. Condit did ask eBay to restore the
auction of the artwork on eBay, but the action was taken in secret.

This announcement to the press is intended to show publicly that Rep. Condit
recognizes that California Law does not protect him from being the subject of
an artwork, and that the attempt to suppress or censor artwork is a potential
violation of Federal Laws.

More information on this story including a detailing of all of the events
leading up to this point can be found at the following web link. This page
also contains a link to a scan of the letter sent to Gary Condit and a photo
of the artwork.

http://aleydesign.com/artpage.html

The item, as relisted on eBay can be found by going to:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewItem&item=1454088

967

Or going to eBay.com and typing in 1454088967 into the Search field.
The statutes listed above can be found at: http://aleydesign.com/Statutes.html


Additional questions may be referred to Terry Aley either by email at
AleyDesign () aol com or (913) 385-9463.

# # #




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------