sports memorabilia

In one of the biggest decisions of his life, Roberto Duran was awarded five championship belts today. The belts were taken in a staged robbery at Duran's house, and weren't discovered until an attempt to sell them to a sports memorabilia dealer went bad.

Sports memorabilia is a troubling thing to collect. A number of states require that some type of express warranty of authenticity accompany a sports collectible. But, as we saw a couple of months back in a class action suit against eBay, you should be careful where and how you buy such items.

Ebay had successfully defended a $100 million class action suit involving items sold on their auction site which had phony autographs. A July decision in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had the effect of removing eBay as a defendant in the case:

Justice Terry O'Rourke, writing for the Court of Appeal, said Quinn was correct in ruling that eBay is not a "dealer" in autographed memorabilia within the meaning of the California Autographed Sports Memorabilia Law.

ebay was charged with violating the State of California's law which requires that a sports memorabilia dealer sell goods with an express warranty of authenticity. But, is eBay a dealer? The Justice didn't believe so, and articulated an exception involving some transactions on the web that carry some pretty broad implications.

But O'Rourke said eBay is not an auctioneer in the sense envisioned by the law, because it was not the owner or consignee of the items but merely brought together the dealers and buyers. eBay, he said, "does not sell or offer to sell collectibles because it is in fact the individual defendants who sold the forged items to appellants.

The justice went on to say that any action against eBay is preempted by Sec. 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which says that "[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

The section expressly bars any suit based on inconsistent state law.

That immunity is extremely broad, O'Rourke said, citing a 1997 Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that absolved America Online from potential liability for defamatory messages posted on its bulletin boards.

Keep this in mind if you feel the inclination to purchase something through eBay. And, it's also important to make certain that you have some warranty right given to you by the dealer (not eBay, but the actual seller) that the autographed collectible you want to buy is the real deal.

And, if someone tries to sell you a prize fighter's championship belts, you might want to hold out for proof that the champ really wants to sell.

delaware history quiz answer

Delaware began using mechanical voting machines instead of paper...in 1954. Please Florida, get a clue. In 1996, we made the next leap forward by being the first in the nation to use all electronic voting machines.

K 19

We saw K-19 last night. It was a good movie, but certainly not a comedy. Kind of a downer, actually. I liked the acting and the overall effect. It helped me to explain the cold war to my son. But the Irish accent on the Russian sub commander was a little distracting, even in English.

school vouchers in florida

A Florida Judge ruled today that Florida's constitution prohibits the use of vouchers to pay for private religious schools. His holding was based upon the section of the state constitution which requires that "no state money can aid any church or religious institution."

A state constitution can offer more protections than the federal constitution. The Judge decided that citizens' tax money couldn't be spent in a manner that strays from the more explicit limitations defined in the Florida Constitution. Don't know exactly why, but this decision made me happy that Delaware's Legislators acted to add freedom of speech to the Delaware Constitution this year. Not that I expect anything to abridge the federal right to expression. I'm just glad that we have a state-based right also.

smell the coffee

From Captured in Time: A Photographic History of Delaware

I read on Metafilter about an effort in the State of Washington to start an initiative taxing expresso on behalf of childcare programs. The movement has gathered 18,000 signatures so far. I also ran across an article about Berkeley banning all coffee except for fair trade coffee. I found myself drawn back to the Initiative and Referendum Insitute's page. The Insitute's sister site, Ballot Watch keeps track of different initiatives and referendums in a number of states. The Washington effort hasn't made it on the Ballot Watch site, presumably because the petition hasn't been turned in yet. The Berkely initiative is a municipal action, and it's not included either.

I did however locate this initiative in California, which would bring Las Vegas or Atlantic City style gambling to California. Of course, that effort seems to be going on in many places in the US. I hope that the efforts to tax coffee don't turn into a similar trend.

delaware history quiz answer

What antislavery newspaper was founded in 1854 by Delawarean Mary Ann Shadd Cary? -- The Provincial Freedman. (and more)

Delaware history quiz answer

J. Caleb Boggs -- Soldier; U.S. Representative; Governor; U.S. Senator.