California: taking more than 25 copies of free papers is now punishable by law
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed a bill, which punishes by up to 10 days in prison and a fine of up to $500 those who are caught taking more than 25 copies of a free newspaper. The rule aims at providing a protection to papers that might be stolen with the purpose of preventing their readership from reading specific viewpoints.
Assembly Republican leader George Plescia of San Diego clarified that he proposed the law to California after learning that copies of a free newspaper in Chula Vista (San Diego County) were systematically taken to Mexico and sold for recycling. The law seeks to protect free papers from being "stolen because of content” said Morgan Crinklaw, spokesman for Plescia. The new law specifies among the reasons for prosecution the theft of copies with the intention of re-sale, or of preventing the public from reading them.
The city of San Francisco approved a similar law in 1999, as a result of the theft of 2000 copies of free gay newspaper San Francisco Bay Times, which led to the discharge of the then- Police Chief who was allegedly involved in the crime.
Source: SFGate
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This is good! I'm a community newspaper publisher/editor in San Diego and for several years now, copies of my newspaper were being stolen from racks because of its contents. I do mostly investigative reporting and because of the nature of my stories and their subjects, some people don't want the community to know what's being reported in my paper. I thank Congressman Plescia for authoring this legisltation and Gov. Schwarzenneger for signing it into law.