Posts Tagged ‘first amendment’
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Well, after saying it was going to do so, the cell phone industry is actually suing us.
All the deets are below.
The friendly face of the Cellular Telephone Industries Association, aka CITA, The Wireless Association. This fellow has a big beef with our little town.
CITA Vice President of Public Affairs John Walls
“CTIA-The Wireless Association® Files Challenge to San Francisco’s “Cell Phone Right-to-Know” Ordinance
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2011 – Today, CTIA-The Wireless Association® asked a federal court to block the enforcement of San Francisco’s “Cell Phone Right-to-Know” ordinance. CTIA’s challenge argues that the Ordinance is barred under the First Amendment and conflicts with federal law governing the safety of wireless devices.
As CTIA explains in its motion, the Ordinance requires retailers to distribute misleading statements and graphics that send the false message that cell phones approved by the FCC are not safe. In fact, the FCC limits radiofrequency emissions from cell phones to ensure that phones sold in the U.S. emit RF energy far below levels shown in scientific testing to have any adverse health effects. The FCC’s standard includes a wide margin of safety for all users. Last year the FDA categorically concluded that there is “No Evidence Linking Cell Phone Use to Risk of Brain Tumors,” and earlier this year the Chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, said that he was “confident that [the FCC's] standards are protecting the health of people.”
CTIA-The Wireless Association Vice President of Public Affairs John Walls released the following statement:
“The materials the City would require be posted and handed out at retail stores are both alarmist and false. The FCC and FDA have repeatedly found that cell phone use does not pose a danger to human health. The Ordinance recommends such things as turning the phone off when not in use, a suggestion that would render critical emergency communications unavailable to San Francisco residents.”
More deets after the jump
(more…)
Tags: 2010, 2011, association, bay area, block, board, boycott, california, cell phone, Cell Phone Right-to-Know, Cellular Telephone Industries Association, Cellular Telephone Industries Association Enterprise and Applications, chief, Chief Deputy Communications Director, cita, city attorney, communications, county, dennis herrera, Deputy, director, ed lee, emissions, enforcement, fcc, federal, first amendment, fromer, gavin newsom, green, health, John Walls, Julius Genachowski, Mayor, ordinance, radiation, rf, San Francisco, skateboard, supervisors, Vice President of Public Affairs, vote, VP, wireless
Posted in law | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
No, they‘re required by contract, a bad 20-year contract engineered by somewhat corrupt former Mayor Willie Brown.
Blogger Michael Petrelis is looking into these things, particularly some in the Castro – be sure to follow along his adventure this month as he considers attending one the semi-secret meetings that DPW hosts with Clear Channel and others.
These things, which are/were a burden to small local newspapers in particular, seem to require a lot of maintenance and upkeep. Multiple crews were working simultaneously on Market Street a few weeks back:
Click to expand
Just as the assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk was a case study against district elections, ridiculous 20-year contracts what tie the City’s hands are case studies against San Francisco’s Strong Mayor system.
IMO.
Tags: 2011, bay area, california, clear channel, dpw, first amendment, green, Michael Petrelis, news, newspaper, newspapers, Ped-Mount, pedmount, San Francisco, sidewalks, willie brown
Posted in media | No Comments »
Friday, June 24th, 2011
(Gentle Readers, you know that I love you, all 14 of you, no matter what. But others, well, they only care about cosmetic-type things – they’ll like you better if you pay somebody to shoot protein into your face, oh well.)
Can you imagine making a post on the Yelp about your plastic surgeon and then getting hit with a multi-million dollar defamation (plus invasion of privacy plus interference with prospective economic advantage, you know, the whole megillah) lawsuit?
Well, check out the Marin IJ for the sad story of Dr. Kimberly Henry‘s pwnage from Judge Roy Chernus. Wow.
Oh, and surprise, they’re talking about this case on the Yelp.
A little of this, and now you’re beautiful!
Via Y_tambe
Forty reviews are no longer standing for Dr. Kimberly A Henry, but three are still there.
Anyway, Only in Marin, as they say…
Tags: (CASE), 000, 20, anti-SLAPP, attorney, attorneys, award, botox, Chernus, claims, Constitution, consumer, cosmetic surgeon, court, damages, defamation, defamatory, defendant, Deidra Carson, dismissed, doctor, Dr. Kimberly Henry, even if it's not true, fees, first amendment, free speech, freedom of speech, Greenbrae, Henry, intentional, interference with prospective economic advantage, invasion of privacy, Judge, kentfield, Kim Henry, kimberly a henry, Kimberly Henry, lawsuit, lawyer, libel, litigation, marin, MD, negligent, Oh Marin, OMYSC, online, Only in Marin, plastic, public interest benefit, pwnage, pwned, reverse, reviewer, reviews, right, roy, Roy Chernus, SLAPP, strategic lawsuit against public participation, suit, superior, surgeon, There's nothing to protect you, United States, website, with prejudice in its entirety, yelp, yelp.com, you can say whatever you want, You can't fight it, You So Crazy
Posted in health, law, paranormal | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Do you think the grafitti on this truck makes the Panhandle area “look abandoned?”
If so, you’re not alone.
Click to expand:
Pirate Cat/ Pirate Cat/ It’s Not Your Fault
Tags: 2010, Amendment, bay area, blight, california, citaion, clean, department, director, dpw, First, first amendment, free, graffiti, green, Mohammed Nuru, monica's florist, pirate cat, public works, San Francisco, SFPD, speech, ticket, truck
Posted in art, crime | No Comments »
Monday, September 20th, 2010
The DPW wants truck owners to get cited if they allow their rides to get covered in graffiti.
Of course, the City doesn’t have this issue with its own trucks as they get locked up at night.
Monica’s Florist blighting up the Financial:
Click to expand
I don’t know how this would fly in the courts…
Tags: 2010, Amendment, bay area, blight, california, citaion, clean, department, director, dpw, First, first amendment, free, graffiti, green, Mohammed Nuru, monica's florist, public works, San Francisco, SFPD, speech, ticket, truck
Posted in advertising, law | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 13th, 2010
Part of the reason that these green news racks replaced the regular racks we used to have was that a former Mayor of San Francisco didn’t like what was said about him in the media. And another part of it had to do with, and there’s a lot of this in town, people making six figures a year imposing their aesthetics, their values, on the much larger class of people making five figures a year.
Get all the deets on this failed San Francisco policy here. And see what Berkeley’s up to right here.
Anyway, at least you can use them for something, at least they have some use. All those handles look as if they were made for U locks:
Click to expand
Look forward to the removal of most of these mostly-empty green monsters within five years…
Tags: "street furniture, 2010, abercrombie, bay area, bay times, bicycle, bike, california, cyclists, fees, fifth, first amendment, fitch, gavin newsom, lock, market, Mayor, media, news, news rack, newspaper, ordinance, paper, pedmount, racks, San Francisco, street, streetscape, union square, wilie brown, willie brown, wily brown
Posted in media | No Comments »
Monday, April 26th, 2010
The Harvard Law Review has just said, “How About No” to the FTC’s overbroad blogger guidelines. Check it:
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revised their Endorsement and Testimonial Guides (Guides) to cover “consumer generated media” such as blogs and other internet media forms. In the interest of providing consumers with full disclosure, the Guides require bloggers to disclose any “material connection[s]” they have with producers of any products that they “endorse” on their blogs. A “material connection” includes not only monetary compensation, but also any free good received by the blogger — even if that good was provided unsolicited, with no conditions attached, for the purpose of allowing the blogger to review the product.
Yet a constitutional analysis of unpaid blogger endorsements shows that such endorsements are not commercial speech — which receives reduced constitutional protection — but rather noncommercial speech entitled to full First Amendment protection. Not only do the Guides burden bloggers’ protected speech, they also create an unfair double standard by exempting legacy media from the Guides’ disclosure requirements. Therefore, the Guides should be ruled unconstitutional as applied to bloggers.
O.K. then.
Wonder when they’ll take down these smarmy videos…
Tags: blogger guidelines, consumer generated media, Endorsement and Testimonial Guides, federal trade commission, first amendment, ftc, Guides, harvard, Harvard Law Review, how about no, Law Review, legacy, mary engle, material connection, noncommercial, pwnage, pwned, pwns, smarm, smarmy, speech
Posted in government, law, media | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Remember what newpaper racks used to look like? Sure you do, because they’re all over the less-populated parts of town. But the Great PedMount Invasion of the Aughts this past decade is firmly entrenched on Market Street near Union Square, and the Castro, and other places.
San Francisco’s ridiculous News Rack Ordinance mandates these glorious pieces of “Street Furniture.” Does this program cause problems for the Bay Times newspaper and other free publications? Yes. Should we double the cost the producers of the publications have to pay again? Why not? Would San Francisco’s Quimby-esque mayors, past and present, such as Willie Brown, have numerous motives to support this kind of scheme? Oh yes.
Oh well.
(Did publishers at the time band together to fight? Sort of.)
So, this photo on the Boing Boing was kind of misleading, of course, but what’s the point of having 20+ completely empty news boxes mounted on six pedestals in front of the Abercrombie at Fifth and Market?
How about using them as bike racks when others aren’t available and you are tasked to buy 100ml of Fierce cologne for $70(!) after work? (Girlfriend, Abercrombie cologne costing $3000/gallon is just about the last thing he wants from you this Christmas, just saying.) The green metal handles are perfect for even the heartiest of U-locks. See?
Click to expand
Dead and wounded on either side/
You know it’s only a matter of time:
Who can afford to pay the fees? Spammers, mostly.
A tombstone, of sorts. Here lies AsianWeek. Here lies Where Magazine…
If your vocabulary includes terms like “streetscape” and “street furniture,” and you don’t like the media and/or you don’t like what the media says about you, you ought to consider starting a News Rack Ordinance in your town. Why not? Feel free to call the resulting Fail Whale a “huge improvement.”
Tags: "street furniture, abercrombie, bay times, fees, fifth, first amendment, fitch, gavin newsom, market, Mayor, media, news, news rack, newspaper, ordinance, paper, pedmount, racks, San Francisco, street, streetscape, union square, wilie brown
Posted in bikes, media | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 25th, 2009
It’s official policy to not ticket double-parked vehicles during Sunday services in some areas of San Francisco. (That’s not to say it’s written down anywhere or anything, it’s just official policy, that’s all.)
So, when prayer fails, just park wherever the Hell you want, the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause be Damned.
But look out, “fat, ugly, lazy specimens of humanity,” somebody’s gunning for you on the Yelp.
Oh well.
Tags: car, church, double, double parking, DPT, establishment clause, first amendment, mta, park, parking, religion, San Francisco, sunday, sundays, transit first, unwritten rule, vehicle, yelp
Posted in cars | Comments Off
