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Posts published in “Day: September 14, 2008”

Shutting down oversight

If you want to tape a phone conversation in Oregon, the basic rule (bear in mind here that your scribe is not a lawyer, so this is not legal counsel) is that you need the permission of at least one party to the conversation to do it. The law (see here, under the section .540) is a little more complicated than that, but this is the core principle. And it applies generally to making an electronic record of a "communication".

Now consider this, from the Portland Mercury blog: "Independent videographer Joe Anybody has filed a tort claim with the city of Portland seeking just $100 in damages, but more importantly, he feels, to get the cops to change their policy on people videoing their actions. Joe, whose real name is Mike Tabor, had his camcorder confiscated by cops on March 27, after he recorded an arrest. The cops appear to still think they have the right to seize a camera from anybody video recording their actions . . ."

You'd think that someone interacting with government officials would have the right to record those interactions. Tabor's attorney does: "Sanctioning people under ORS 165.540 for recording stops and arrests is a violation of the First Amendment because it prevents people from recording a matter of public concern and communicating that information to others. A person who witnesses a stop or arrest will be far less able to express what they have seen and heard to others if they are deprived of the option to make a video recording and show the events to others."

As you may have guessed, suit has been filed on all this by Tabor. Consider the broader implications if a court winds up deciding he's wrong . . .