Jim Choate[SMTP:ravage@einstein.ssz.com] wrote
On Sat, 20 Oct 2001, Steve Furlong wrote:
Jim, I'm going to have to call bullshit on that. A few minutes' checking (google and the revised code pages of a handful of states) shows that defacing a DL generally seems to be a violation, not even a misdemeanor.
You can go to jail for several years for defacing a license. In Texas it's illegal to photocopy it except for official or business purposes.
'Except for official or business purposes' is a hole big enough to drive a HAZMAT tanker through, privacy-wise. It means that any business that want to can snarf the data, legally. I recently bought a car - every dealer photocopied licenses before handing us a movable, disposable asset worth several $10^4k to take away for a test drive. I'd have been suprised if they hadn't. All this does is provide the LEOs with yet another line in the laundry list of violations they paste on accuseds, to up the time in jail if they manage to get a conviction. Peter Trei