Theft of free papers
Leslie Goldstein
lesl at UDEL.EDU
Sat Oct 27 11:40:12 PDT 2001
I cannot see how the intent of the stealer can turn soemthing into
theft. One who steals a valuable painting to have on her wall vs. to
sell is stealing either way.
"Volokh, Eugene" wrote:
>
>
> Is that really right? As I mentioned in my earlier post,
> imagine that someone took thousands of free papers -- either student
> papers or, say, the L.A. Weekly, which is a nifty 150-200 tabloid
> pages -- and sold them to a recycling center. Seems to me that would
> be pretty clearly theft; the fact that the papers were available for
> everyone to take one doesn't seem that they were available for
> everyone to take 1000. Am I mistaken? If I am, then people could
> make some money. And if I'm correct, what's the difference between
> taking 1000 to sell to a recycling center and taking 1000 to throw in
> the trash?
>
> Eugene
>
> Lynne Henderson writes:
>
> Eugene, it has to be property of another to be theft. Free
> newspapers can
> be taken by anyone, there is no claim of ownership, further how
> do you
> prove intent permanently to deprive the owner of her property?
> Basic theft
> law--Cal. Pen. Code sec. 484. Now whether it violates some
> University
> student ethics code is another matter.
> Best
> Lynne
>
> At 03:17 PM 10/26/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> > Any thoughts on this, especially in the broader context
> that such
> > thefts at
> >universities throughout the country apparently virtually never
> lead to
> >conviction? Would failure to investigate this with the same
> effort that
> >would be addressed to theft of other property be a 1st Am
> violation?
> >
> > One common argument is that this isn't theft because
> the papers
> > are free,
> >but I don't think that can be right: I take it that few would
> doubt that it
> >would be theft for someone to take all those papers and then
> sell them to a
> >recycling center (or am I mistaken?); is there any real
> difference here?
> >
> > Eugene
> >
> >http://www.dailycal.com/article.asp?id=6816
> >
> >Daily Cals Stolen, Replaced With Protester Fliers
> >
> >Fliers Call for Daily Cal Boycott
> >
> >By CYRUS FARIVAR
> >
> >Daily Cal Staff Writer
> >
> >Thursday, October 25, 2001
> >
> >Approximately 1,000 copies of The Daily Californian were stolen
> from
> >newspaper racks on Sproul Plaza Wednesday, apparently in
> response to an
> >advertisement titled "End States Who Sponsor Terrorism," paid
> for by the Ayn
> >Rand Institute.
> >
> >In place of the newspapers were fliers that called for a boycott
> of the
> >Daily Cal and alleged the Oct. 23 ad is "irrational and
> inflammatory," and
> >said that it perpetuated hostility against the Iranian
> community.
> >
> >The ad featured an essay written by Ayn Rand Institute founder
> Leonard
> >Peikoff, who called for the elimination of the "terrorist
> sanctuaries" in
> >Iran.
> >
> >"What Germany was to Nazism in the 1940s, Iran is to terrorism
> today,"
> >stated the ad. "Whatever else it does, therefore, the U.S. can
> put an end to
> >the Jihad-mongers only by taking out Iran.
> >
> >"Eliminating Iran's terrorist sanctuaries and military
> capability is not
> >enough. We must do the equivalent of de-Nazifying the country,
> by expelling
> >every branch of its government."
> >
> >UC police are currently investigating the case but have no
> suspects, said UC
> >police Capt. Bill Cooper.
> >
> >Past thefts of the Daily Cal have never resulted in any arrests
> or
> >prosecutions, Cooper said.
> >
> >The flier found in the distribution boxes of the Daily Cal was
> unsigned, and
> >no one has claimed responsibility for the theft of the papers.
> >
> >The flier stated that the ad was "the last straw" in
> perpetuating hate and
> >violence, citing last February's printing of an ad authored by
> David
> >Horowitz and last month's political cartoon by Darrin Bell as
> other
> >examples.
> >
> >Copies of the independent student newspaper were also stolen
> after the paper
> >ran an editorial in 1996 supporting Proposition 209, which
> banned the use of
> >affirmative action in state programs.
> >
> >"We must take a stand against the continuation of a systematic
> policy of
> >eliciting and reinforcing hatred and racism from our student
> newspaper," the
> >flier stated. "Until the Daily Cal shifts policy we will not
> allow business
> >to continue as usual. As a result, we have taken copies of
> today's issue of
> >the newspaper." . . .
> >
> >The flier's authors, who anticipated such criticism, disagree
> that this is a
> >free speech issue, calling the ad hate speech.
> >
> >"We do not believe that hate speech, which advocates the killing
> of entire
> >nations and the innocent people who live in them, is protected,"
> the flier
> >states. "The Peikoff ad clearly crosses the line between
> reasoned debate and
> >inflammatory hate mongering." . . .
>
> --=====================_26038881==_.ALT
> Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
>
> <html>
> <font size=3>Eugene, it has to be property of another to be
> theft.
> Free newspapers can be taken by anyone, there is no claim of
> ownership,
> further how do you prove intent permanently to deprive the owner
> of her
> property? Basic theft law--Cal. Pen. Code sec. 484.
> Now
> whether it violates some University student ethics code is
> another
> matter.<br>
> Best<br>
> Lynne<br><br>
> At 03:17 PM 10/26/2001 -0400, you wrote:<br>
> <blockquote type=cite class=cite
> cite>
> Any thoughts on this, especially in the broader context that such
> thefts
> at<br>
> universities throughout the country apparently virtually never
> lead
> to<br>
> conviction? Would failure to investigate this with the same
> effort
> that<br>
> would be addressed to theft of other property be a 1st Am
> violation?<br><br>
> One common argument is
> that
> this isn't theft because the papers are free,<br>
> but I don't think that can be right: I take it that few
> would doubt
> that it<br>
> would be theft for someone to take all those papers and then sell
> them to
> a<br>
> recycling center (or am I mistaken?); is there any real
> difference
> here?<br><br>
> Eugene<br><br>
> <a href="http://www.dailycal.com/article.asp?id=6816"
> eudora="autourl">http://www.dailycal.com/article.asp?id=6816</a><br><br>
>
> Daily Cals Stolen, Replaced With Protester Fliers<br><br>
> Fliers Call for Daily Cal Boycott<br><br>
> By CYRUS FARIVAR<br><br>
> Daily Cal Staff Writer<br><br>
> Thursday, October 25, 2001<br><br>
> Approximately 1,000 copies of The Daily Californian were stolen
> from<br>
> newspaper racks on Sproul Plaza Wednesday, apparently in response
> to
> an<br>
> advertisement titled "End States Who Sponsor
> Terrorism," paid
> for by the Ayn<br>
> Rand Institute.<br><br>
> In place of the newspapers were fliers that called for a boycott
> of
> the<br>
> Daily Cal and alleged the Oct. 23 ad is "irrational and
> inflammatory," and<br>
> said that it perpetuated hostility against the Iranian
> community.<br><br>
> The ad featured an essay written by Ayn Rand Institute founder
> Leonard<br>
> Peikoff, who called for the elimination of the "terrorist
> sanctuaries" in<br>
> Iran.<br><br>
> "What Germany was to Nazism in the 1940s, Iran is to
> terrorism
> today,"<br>
> stated the ad. "Whatever else it does, therefore, the U.S.
> can put
> an end to<br>
> the Jihad-mongers only by taking out Iran.<br><br>
> "Eliminating Iran's terrorist sanctuaries and military
> capability is
> not<br>
> enough. We must do the equivalent of de-Nazifying the country, by
>
> expelling<br>
> every branch of its government."<br><br>
> UC police are currently investigating the case but have no
> suspects, said
> UC<br>
> police Capt. Bill Cooper.<br><br>
> Past thefts of the Daily Cal have never resulted in any arrests
> or<br>
> prosecutions, Cooper said.<br><br>
> The flier found in the distribution boxes of the Daily Cal was
> unsigned,
> and<br>
> no one has claimed responsibility for the theft of the
> papers.<br><br>
> The flier stated that the ad was "the last straw" in
> perpetuating hate and<br>
> violence, citing last February's printing of an ad authored by
> David<br>
> Horowitz and last month's political cartoon by Darrin Bell as
> other<br>
> examples.<br><br>
> Copies of the independent student newspaper were also stolen
> after the
> paper<br>
> ran an editorial in 1996 supporting Proposition 209, which banned
> the use
> of<br>
> affirmative action in state programs.<br><br>
> "We must take a stand against the continuation of a
> systematic
> policy of<br>
> eliciting and reinforcing hatred and racism from our student
> newspaper," the<br>
> flier stated. "Until the Daily Cal shifts policy we will not
> allow
> business<br>
> to continue as usual. As a result, we have taken copies of
> today's issue
> of<br>
> the newspaper." . . .<br><br>
> The flier's authors, who anticipated such criticism, disagree
> that this
> is a<br>
> free speech issue, calling the ad hate speech.<br><br>
> "We do not believe that hate speech, which advocates the
> killing of
> entire<br>
> nations and the innocent people who live in them, is
> protected," the
> flier<br>
> states. "The Peikoff ad clearly crosses the line between
> reasoned
> debate and<br>
> inflammatory hate mongering." . . . </font></blockquote><br>
>
> </html>
>
> --=====================_26038881==_.ALT--
>
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