At 09:50 AM 8/8/96 -0700, Rich Burroughs wrote:

On Thu, 8 Aug 1996, Declan McCullagh wrote:

...

Looks like we're a little late. However, we can still grab the tape from Oregon's DMV for $220. It would be an interesting excercise to try to get these tapes from each state with similar provisions and put them all online.

This information has been available in Oregon for at least a couple of years on CD. I've always been concerned about the privacy implications of that service -- perhaps that's the upside of this story? That people do give a rat's ass about their privacy?

Actually, the lesson to be learned is that the news media is filled with a bunch of hypocrites. These people are supposed to be REPORTERS, for god's sake. Are they trying to tell us that they've never gone to the DMV and forked over $4 to find out the owner of a car? Can you say, "investigative reporting"? I think they're just carrying water for their friends who work for government.

I do think that the information should be able to be disseminated on the Net as long as it's legal.

While I think that the information should be disseminated on the net REGARDLESS of whether "it's legal" in any particular jurisdiction. Or, perhaps more accurately, I think that this information shouldn't be collected at all. Then it couldn't be abused. Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com