Daily Archives: April 12, 2005


The Jefferson Muzzles

Hmmmm, I’m puzzled that I missed this the last couple years. Perhaps I think too much of how much more I’m in touch through the blogosphere…
Anyway, here’s the bad news:

the Jefferson Muzzles are awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment. Because the importance and value of free expression extend far beyond the First Amendment’s limit on government censorship, acts of private censorship are not spared consideration for the dubious honor of receiving a Muzzle.
Unfortunately, each year the finalists for the Jefferson Muzzles have emerged from an alarmingly large group of candidates. For each recipient, a dozen could have been substituted. Further, an examination of previous Jefferson Muzzle recipients reveals that the disregard of First Amendment principles is not the byproduct of a particular political outlook but rather that threats to free expression come from all over the political spectrum.

Without furthar ado here are the 2005 Muzzle Awards.
Via beSpacific.


Personal Data Protection

Kevin Drum echoes Charle’s Kuffner’s concern that congress will, if it enacts a security breach protection law similar to California’s, preemptively dilute California’s law in the process. Kuffner says:

For the rest of us, what we want here is the same protections that Californians currently enjoy. Anything less is unacceptable.

well, yes, but are after the fact disclosure laws really protections? Certainly miscreants like Choicepoint should be obligated to disclose to one and all when someone’s personal information has been breached. It seems to me, though, that protection should happen before the event not after and that, as I have noted before, the minimum acceptable starting point must be along the lines of:

No institution, government or private, can be allowed to collect or distribute, for free or for fee, to any private or government entity any information about an individual without that individual’s specific consent on a per incident basis and if the distribution is for a fee then that individual must be compensated at a rate agreeable to the individual.

Violations should be treated as felonies and violators must reimburse violated individual(s) for all related losses including legal costs related to the disclosure.