Sunday, October 6, 2013

Are online mugshot sites extortion/lashon harah?

NY Times    [...] But once he is done, Mr. Birnbaum’s record will be clean. Which means that by the time he graduates from the University of Texas at Austin, he can start his working life without taint.

At least in the eyes of the law. In the eyes of anyone who searches for Mr. Birnbaum online, the taint could last a very long time. That’s because the mug shot from his arrest is posted on a handful of for-profit Web sites, with names like Mugshots, BustedMugshots and JustMugshots. These companies routinely show up high in Google searches; a week ago, the top four results for “Maxwell Birnbaum” were mug-shot sites. 

The ostensible point of these sites is to give the public a quick way to glean the unsavory history of a neighbor, a potential date or anyone else. That sounds civic-minded, until you consider one way most of these sites make money: by charging a fee to remove the image. That fee can be anywhere from $30 to $400, or even higher. Pay up, in other words, and the picture is deleted, at least from the site that was paid. 

To Mr. Birnbaum, and millions of other Americans now captured on one or more of these sites, this sounds like extortion. Mug shots are merely artifacts of an arrest, not proof of a conviction, and many people whose images are now on display were never found guilty, or the charges against them were dropped. But these pictures can cause serious reputational damage, as Mr. Birnbaum learned in his sophomore year, when he applied to be an intern for a state representative in Austin. Mr. Birnbaum heard about the job through a friend.“The assistant to this state rep called my friend back and said, ‘We’d like to hire him, but we Google every potential employee, and the first thing that came up when we searched for Maxwell was a mug shot for a drug arrest,’ ” Mr. Birnbaum said. “I know what I did was wrong, and I understand the punishment,” he continued. “But these Web sites are punishing me, and because I don’t have the money it would take to get my photo off them all, there is nothing I can do about it.” [...]

12 comments :

  1. Wow. It looks like even the New York Times has a better grasp of the destructiveness of loshon hora than Rabbi Eidensohn. RDE takes the position "if its public, its public and I can spread it more." The NYT article demonstrates the falsity of that attitude.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Larry if you don't see any significance and benefit in reading the material I put on this blog - why are you reading it? If you do see it then why are spouting this nonsense?

      Delete
  2. Very nice post. I absolutely love this site. Continue the
    good work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. A motivating discussion is worth comment. There's no doubt that that
    you should publish more about this subject, it may not
    be a taboo matter but generally people do not talk about such topics.
    To the next! All the best!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Everything is very open with a very clear explanation of the challenges.
    It was truly informative. Your site is very useful. Many thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Greetings! Very useful advice within this article! It's the little changes that will make
    the most important changes. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice post. I learn something new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon on a daily basis.
    It's always interesting to read articles from other writers and
    practice a little something from their websites.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'd like to thank you for the efforts you have
    put in writing this website. I'm hoping to view the same high-grade
    blog posts by you in the future as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has
    inspired me to get my very own site now ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. You've made some decent points there. I checked on the net to learn more about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this site.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You've made some decent points there. I looked on the net for additional information about the issue and found most people will go along with
    your views on this website.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very good post! We will be linking to this great article on our website.
    Keep up the great writing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh my goodness! Impressive article dude! Thank you, However I am
    having issues with your RSS. I don’t know why I am unable to join it.
    Is there anyone else getting similar RSS problems?
    Anyone who knows the answer will you kindly respond? Thanx!!

    ReplyDelete

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL NOT BE POSTED!
please use either your real name or a pseudonym.