The dude who created a group called "YIMBY Neoliberal" recently published an unauthorized recording of our recent endorsement meeting. We have sent him the following letter and are taking action to protect the privacy of the folks who attended the meeting. What a colossal goddamn waste of time!
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Dear Steven Buss,
This letter relates to your Medium post about the San Francisco League of Pissed-off Voters (“the League”) recent endorsement meeting (the “Meeting”). The League’s endorsement meetings have always been open to members of the public. We like getting input from non-members in our discussions. But shit is different in our strange new world of online meetings and Zoom-bombing. "Public" online is different from public in person. So to ensure an environment where our members could freely express and debate views, we expressly required all attendees of the Meeting to agree to not record or screenshot the Meeting. This is not an uncommon expectation for political meetings.
Despite these expectations, you published an unauthorized recording of the Meeting in your Medium post. In the recording, you included unauthorized use of copyrighted materials owned by the League, as well as unauthorized uses of quotes and likeness of our members and other attendees. Whether or not you personally recorded the Meeting is irrelevant. California is a "two-party consent state," and Cal. Penal Code §632 prohibits "willfully disclos(ing) the contents of a telegraphic or telephonic message...without the permission of that person." WTF, man?
While we wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment and critique of the Meeting, it is your First Amendment right to say whatever it is you would like to say about the League. However, your unauthorized uses of our intellectual property, including copyrighted materials owned by the League, and unauthorized uses of quotes and likenesses of our members and other attendees is unlawful.
To summarize:
- Non-members were welcomed to attend, but in order to attend, had to RSVP and commit to not recording, because attendees of the meeting hadn’t consented to being recorded.
- Whether or not you personally recorded the Meeting is irrelevant. You did not have consent from any of the attendees to publish the unauthorized recording.
- You did not have consent to publish the statements by League members and other attendees in the unauthorized recording.
- You also did not have permission to use the Google doc to which the League owns the copyright for, which was also linked to in your Medium post.
- Hey you're really creeping us out with this stalker stuff. Can you please back off?
In order to resolve this, we ask that you (1) publish a public apology to the League on Twitter for recording an endorsement meeting knowing that recording was expressly prohibited and that you used, without authorization, intellectual property owned by the League, as well as misappropriated the publicity and privacy rights of the League members and attendees of the endorsement meeting with the intent to harass and embarrass the League and publicly commit to not do similar actions in the future; (2) immediately take-down the Google doc; and (3) cease any effort to repost or contest the take-downs of the unauthorized recordings on Vimeo and the Medium post because it is replete with unauthorized uses of intellectual property owned by the League and, as published, violates the right of publicity and privacy of our members and other attendees. Please confirm also that you have deleted and destroyed any and all copies of the unauthorized recording and any intellectual property owned by the League. Please confirm in writing that you have done this by close of business Friday, October 2, 2020.
As an alternative option to resolve this, respecting your First Amendment right of free speech, please re-post a corrected version of the Medium post removing: (1) the unauthorized recording; (2) unauthorized uses of intellectual property owned by the League; and (3) unauthorized quotes and likenesses of our members and attendees of the Meeting, with the following disclaimer prominently displayed before the contents of the post:
This is an updated version of this post that is edited to remove an unauthorized recording of the San Francisco League of Pissed-off Voters’ recent endorsement meeting that used, without permission, intellectual property owned by the League as well as used unauthorized quotes and misappropriated of the likenesses, publicity, and privacy rights of the League members and other attendees who were recorded without permission. The views expressed in the post are the opinions of the author.
If you’d prefer this option, please post an updated version by the close of business Friday, October 2, 2020. Similarly, if you select this option, please confirm also that you have deleted and destroyed any and all copies of the unauthorized recording and any intellectual property owned by the League.
Sincerely,
San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters