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Eldred Told Not To Hand Out Walden At Walden Pond
from the might-cut-into-commercial-enterprise... dept
Eric Eldred (of Supreme Court fame) recently went to Walden Pond to hand out free copies of David Thoreau's "Walden," which is very much in the public domain these days. He was quickly told to stop because he did not have a permit to hand out free books. The park supervisor claims they told him to leave because handing out free books might interfere with the business prospects of the "Shop at Walden Pond" which sells copies of the book. The executive director of the Thoreau Society, which runs the shop, didn't seem to mind, and the whole thing is somewhat farcical given the nature of "Walden" anyway.
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Litter Bugs
What if it's a more mundane issue, that people might litter the park with ditched copies of the book?
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Re: Litter Bugs
That is actually a reasonable point, and one I thought about as well, but the woman clearly states her reasoning was fear of competition for the gift shop.
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Re: Litter Bugs
Actually, the Supreme Court has held, in a case involving someone handing out pamphlets on a street corner, that if littering is the concern then the right answer is to prohibit littering, which is not protected by the First Amendment. So, the littering argument would have been a non-starter for most jurists.
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