FC: More on censorhappy Washington politicos ban publishing police info

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

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" <polk () law upenn edu>
To: <declan () well com>
Message-ID: <B8CA0411.2A95%polk () law upenn edu>

On 3/29/02 9:30 AM, "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com> wrote:

> ---
>
> Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 07:18:18 -0500
> To: declan () well com, politech () politechbot com
> From: Duncan Frissell <frissell () panix com>
> 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/
=====================================




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