IP, brinworld, censorship: Tipper Whore filmer attacked by campus police

[Major Variola (ret)]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41882-2002Jul21.html

Even before the big dust-up at the Tipper Gore appearance, Ben Wetmore
was a gadfly of some notoriety at American University. The poli-sci
major from Texas had elbowed his way into the ranks of student
government but ended up getting impeached after a dispute with fellow
legislators.

Then he started a Web journal devoted to criticizing and lampooning
campus leaders -- particularly President Benjamin Ladner, whose stately
home and car Wetmore took to photographing and posting on his site as
evidence of what he saw as administrative extravagance.

"He's kind of like a Matt Drudge, but more immature," a fellow student
politician said of Wetmore.

Wetmore had a pretty shaky relationship with the administration by April
8, when the former vice president's wife went to speak at the campus.
Wetmore brought his video camera, suspicious that Gore was drawing a
large fee and reasoning that "there should at least be a record of her
being here," he said.

Midway through her speech, campus police officers approached Wetmore and
demanded that he hand over the tape. After a scuffle, he was arrested
and sent to a campus disciplinary panel, which placed him on probation
and removed him from his elected office as dorm president. Among the
charges: theft of Gore's intellectual property by videotaping her
speech.

The case has outraged free speech watchdogs and civil libertarians, who
say the university's claim is a flimsy attempt to stifle Wetmore's
journalistic freedom. They say campus officials singled out Wetmore for
excessive enforcement and punishment, and denied him a fair hearing,
because of his political views.

"The idea that a student videotaping a public event would be taken
outside, pinned to the ground and handcuffed, [then] be accused of an
intellectual property violation is shocking," said Greg C. Luckianoff, a
staff member with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a
Philadelphia-based advocacy group that has hired a lawyer for Wetmore.
"This was just plain thuggishness."

American University officials say that they were protecting Gore's
rights while preserving order in the auditorium and that Wetmore
escalated the situation by refusing to comply with campus police.

"We have our conduct code, and we expect students to adhere to it," Dean
of Students Faith C. Leonard said. "If there are violations, they will
be adjudicated by an impartial hearing body."

Wetmore's supporters say the school's actions are part of a trend of
colleges using restrictive discipline to silence critics. This spring at
West Virginia University, administrators attempted to corral protests in
designated "free speech zones." At the University of California at San
Diego, administrators briefly charged student journalists with
"disruption" for taking photos at a public meeting.

The debate echoes the political correctness battles of the 1980s and
1990s, when campus administrators tried to ban hate speech and some
conservatives complained of an academic climate that shouted down their
voices. The Wetmore case, though, might be driven less by ideology than
by something noted by another of his supporters: "He's annoying."

Wetmore said his interest in Gore's speech, which included a
presentation of her published photos, was prompted by a rumor that the
campus was paying her tens of thousands of dollars. College sources
would not disclose the fee, although they say it was much less.

"If we're going to spend so much to have her talk, let's tape it so that
people who aren't there can see it," Wetmore said last week.

At Gore's speech, he sat in the bleachers toward the back of Bender
Arena. An organizer announced at the start that flash photography was
prohibited but said nothing about videotaping, so Wetmore set the camera
on his lap and started it rolling.

Campus officials were disturbed when they spotted the camera -- Gore's
contract with the university stipulated that her presentation could not
be recorded. According to documents from Wetmore's disciplinary hearing,
an officer was sent to tell Wetmore to stop taping and go to the lobby.

Wetmore refused. Another officer joined them, but Wetmore refused to
leave or relinquish his tape. The confrontation started to distract the
audience, according to university documents.

A third officer arrived, and Wetmore agreed to go to the lobby. But when
he refused to hand over the tape, a scuffle erupted. Wetmore says he was
pushed against a wall, threatened with Mace, pushed to the floor and
handcuffed.

After about an hour at the campus public safety office, he was released
-- without his tape, which the university holds.

Among the many campus charges Wetmore faced -- disorderly conduct,
failure to comply with officers and others -- he and his supporters are
most outraged by the charge of theft. "Videotaping a public event is not
theft," said Thor Halvorssen, executive director of the Foundation for
Individual Rights in Education.

Lawyers unconnected to the case say it's a blurry area. Jonathan Band,
an intellectual property expert in the District, says technically,
Gore's speech was comparable to a theatrical production. "If he's taping
it, he's infringing and copying her public performance."

Still, he said, Wetmore probably would have a strong defense, especially
because the speech was by a political figure -- Gore had abandoned a
possible Senate run weeks before -- that Wetmore was videotaping for
First Amendment, not commercial, purposes.

"It is a very technical charge to assert as the basis of campus
punishment," said First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams. "A lawyer can
make a case that her copyright rights were violated, but it is a very
unattractive case."

Gore declined to comment on the issue. "This is clearly a matter between
the university and the student," a staff member said.

Wetmore and his supporters also claim that he was denied due process by
the campus disciplinary board. The three-person panel that heard his
case included a student government rival, Wetmore was required to
testify against himself and he was allowed no formal appeal beyond a
review by the dean of students.

But other lawyers say that campus judicial panels -- with the power, at
most, to throw someone out of school -- are not criminal courts and that
due process does not apply.

Many on campus disagree with the handling of the case, which leaves
Wetmore on probation, at risk of being expelled. Evan Wagner, a student
journalist, resigned from the university's Conduct Council in protest.

"You're talking about someone who doesn't really do any damage, who is
about to be kicked out of school," he said.