Building off of a post I wrote here in November, this past spring I wrote a (lenghty) paper examining the recent “Operation In Our Sites” and its implications for free speech, copyright policy, and practical enforcement of rights online. The paper now has its own SSRN page here. Hope you can all check it out and share thoughts. Thanks.
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Mr. Sellars,
Interesting article. I do want to point out a small error, however. On page 6, you state “Once shown, the
burden shifts to the owner of the property to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the property was in fact unconnected to the crime.” While this was true under the federal civil asset forfeiture laws governing the case you cite to, that changed under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000, which kept the burden of proof on the government, after establishing probable cause, to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that the property is subject to forfeiture. The 9th Circuit discusses this change in US v. $80,180 in Currency.
Comment by Terry Hart — 10 May 2011 @ 12:52 am |
Thanks very much for the correction, and for your own excellent scholarship on this issue. I hope we can keep a dialogue going.
Comment by Andy — 10 May 2011 @ 12:56 am |