TNS#70: Legal Topics: Fair Use, Fair Enforcement

The Next Step show #70 was taped 3/10/10 and featured a discussion of various legal topics of current interest with local attorneys Mark Malachowski (sfcriminaldefenseattorney.com) and James Barrett (jb@jamesbarrettlaw.com) in a return appearance on the show.

We opened with a discussion of Fair Use w/r copyrighted content and the need for copyright reform as espoused by Larry Lessig (lessig.org, fixcongressfirst.org); and of the recent Citizens United Sup.Ct. case giving free speech rights to corporate speech. The discussion of Fair Enforcement was w/r local red light cams, and a recent local case where police broke down the front door and seized all electronics devices at a group house where a rape case suspect apparently tried to compromise an email account of the victim. (The landlord/manager was never even contacted).
The big issue w/r red light cams was: whether in fact you will be held liable unless you identify the true driver, as the Notice of Violation asserts. Our legal panelists seemed to support the view that the registered owner of a vehicle could be held liable for the violation, even if the photo didn't implicate the owner personally. In this case it turned out that, in fact, if the photo indicated someone else was driving, once in court the owner was not even asked to ID the actual driver, and the citation was dismissed. (Yay!)

TNS#60: What to Say to the Cops!

TNS#60 was taped on 11/26/08, a legal primer show we called What To Say To The Cops, inspired by a conversation I had with old friend Mark Malachowski last summer. Mark's a lawyer now (www.marklawdui.com) and we were joined by his friend James Barrett (jb@jamesbarrettlaw.com) for a lively discussion of various scenarios involving law enforcement that anyone might find themselves in, such as getting pulled over, or detained on the street for questioning, or having an officer asking to come into your house. In my own research for the show I was very impressed with the NORML 'freedom card' which can be found on their norml.org site as a ready-to-print .pdf file, which succinctly describes the various Constitutional rights one may be invoking in any discussion with law enforcement. However James and Mark definitely made their case that really all you need to remember is the magic seven words: "I'd like to speak to a lawyer." This was definitely not a law-enforcement-bashing show but the show guests also made their case about the many ways that people act against their own interest in trying to be cooperative with the police, and how it's usually best just to keep your mouth shut. The discussion did tend to center around DUI scenarios, for good reason this time of year! Thanks Mark and James for a very informative show!