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A comment on EFF Responds to Bird's Legal Threats to Boing Boing. Parent comment

Re:EFF Responds to Bird's Legal Threats to Boing Boing by chipotle_coyote on Friday January 11, 2019 @06:03PM (#18888051)
Yes, it is illegal for you to consider it abandoned. In the US, at least, "abandoned" has a specific legal meaning which involves intent: "Abandoned property refers to any personal property left by an owner who has intentionally relinquished all rights to its control. When property is intentionally abandoned, it belongs to no one until it is found and when it is found, the title (ownership) transfers to whoever finds it and possesses it with the intent to take ownership."

https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/abandoned-per...

Property owners don't have any legal responsibility not to leave an item in public unlocked. That might be careless, but it's not illegal.

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Re:EFF Responds to Bird's Legal Threats to Boing Boing by gamblor956 on Friday January 11, 2019 @06:17PM (#18888152)
In the US, at least, what constitutes "abandoned" property differs from state to state and even within the states at the county/municipality level.

If Bird leaves a scooter in the road, for someone else to use, they have relinquished the right to control the device, and it is thus abandoned; the alternative is that they are deliberately littering or committing various other property infractions or misdemeanors.

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Re:EFF Responds to Bird's Legal Threats to Boing Boing by bdowling on Friday January 11, 2019 @06:44PM (#18888325)
Bird clearly maintains the right to control the device because it unlocks the scooter to be used by customers and causes a light to blink so it can be found by "chargers" at the end of the day.

Regarding statutory violations, first of all Bird is probably not littering because the scooters are (arguably) not trash. Second, where the scooters are impounded by cities and other municipalities, it is for parking violations or other statutes against them. As a private citizen, you would have no more right to take their scooter than you would to take my car that was illegally parked.

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Re:EFF Responds to Bird's Legal Threats to Boing Boing by dragonwriter on Friday January 11, 2019 @06:30PM (#18888227)
> If Bird leaves a scooter in the road, for someone else to use, they have relinquished the right to control the device, and it is thus abandoned

No, if they are charging use fees, offering money for people to choose charge them, etc., they have not relinquished all rights to control.

> the alternative is that they are deliberately littering or committing various other property infractions or misdemeanors.

That's a big false dichotomy.

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Re:EFF Responds to Bird's Legal Threats to Boing Boing by Latteland on Friday January 11, 2019 @11:41PM (#18889695)
You can argue that, but you can't just go around stealing things that are sitting on the street or sidewalk. Can you take the doormat outside a door on a building? Or take a sign on the sidewalk? No. Take a sign that the city has left just screwed into a metal pole?
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