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Judge rules Utah law banning undercover farm filming is unconstitutional

ksl.com

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Re: Judge rules Utah law banning undercover farm filming is unconstitutional

#3
Ag-gag laws are legitimized, crooked censorship.

The meat processing industry is still extremely insulated, but let's hope this gets chipped away to reveal their secrets. This is one of the reasons undocumented immigrant labor is exploited: they generally won't say anything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/21/us/meatpackers-profits-hin...

http://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/news_home/Business/2013/...

See also: SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) to see what happens to those whom film use drones to legally film live caged animal shoots and other embarrassing/horrible human-animal interactions. http://sharkonline.org/

Re: Judge rules Utah law banning undercover farm filming is unconstitutional

#6
Reporting on legal decisions is garbage when it doesn't even include the name of the case, or better a pointer to the opinion, so I can read the ruling myself.

But it seems tenuous to me to claim that the state can criminalize trespassing, but not trespassing for the purposes of X, or conspiring to trespass to commit X, regardless of X.

Re: Judge rules Utah law banning undercover farm filming is unconstitutional

#7
How is it ever legal to break into a business's property and secretly video the operations? You surely can't sneak into a factory and record their processes to sell to China. Is it only allowed when it's being used for protesting, not for stealing IP? Or only on farms but not in factories? What about trespass law? Non-disclosure agreements for employees? Are those invalid?

Re: Judge rules Utah law banning undercover farm filming is unconstitutional

#8

Can anyone explain the justification for not recording? I can only see positive things come out of it.

Would you want someone secretly taking video of the most embarrassing, context-free 5 minutes they could find of your job, and invoking a mob to attack you on that basis?

These environments, or disrupting their operations because you're trying to get a sweet shot, can be legitimately dangerous. Discouraging people from trespassing in search of publicity could certainly constitute a rational basis for such a law.

It's a neat trick to ask what possible justification there could be and then downvote the explanation.

Re: Judge rules Utah law banning undercover farm filming is unconstitutional

#9

Can anyone explain the justification for not recording? I can only see positive things come out of it.

From the article, "addressing perceived threats to the state agricultural industry". In other words, the justification is nothing more than "protecting powerful corporate interests takes precedence over individual rights".

Re: Judge rules Utah law banning undercover farm filming is unconstitutional

#10
post #9

Can anyone explain the justification for not recording? I can only see positive things come out of it.

From the article, "addressing perceived threats to the state agricultural industry". In other words, the justification is nothing more than "protecting powerful corporate interests takes precedence over individual rights".

You don't in general have a right to trespass, or break-and-enter, and record what you find.
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