Newspaper theft now against law in Maryland

A warning to all newspaper confiscators: Stealing newspapers -- even as a form of protest and even if the newspapers are free -- is now a crime in the state of Maryland. Maryland Governor William Donald Shaefer recently signed a new law which explicitly prohibits "unauthorized control over newspapers with the intent to prevent other individuals from reading the newspapers." The law, which is the first of its kind in the nation to be specifically directed at newspaper thefts, will go into effect October 1. According to the law, the crime is considered a misdemeanor and is punishable by up to 60 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both. The law also states specifically that the rules apply to all periodicals which are "distributed on a complimentary or compensatory basis." State lawmakers proposed the legislation following a number of newspaper theft incidents in the state, including the confiscation of more than 10,000 copies of the University of Maryland Diamondback last November. Lee Levine, attorney for the Diamondback and for The Daily Pennsylvanian, said Tuesday that he originally felt the law was unnecessary. "I think that it was my position early on?that it wasn't necessary because the existing criminal laws of the state of Maryland covered the issue quite nicely," he said. But Levine added that when state's attorneys from various counties expressed that they felt the current law was ambiguous about newspaper theft, "it became necessary in Maryland to get the law passed to make this clear." Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday he was pleased at the passage of the law. "I think it's a great sign -- it's an indication that legislators and the government in Maryland think that this is an important enough problem that they should take action," he said. "I hope this is going to be a wake-up call to school officials in Maryland and around the country that other people think this is a much bigger deal than they do." Levine said that, depending on whether or not there continue to be newspaper thefts around the country, similar legislative action may soon be found in other states. The Student Press Law Center reported that campus newspaper thefts reached an all-time high during the 1993-94 school year, with 35 student newspapers being confiscated. In April of 1993, more than 14,000 copies of The Daily Pennsylvanian -- nearly the entire press run -- were confiscated by a group calling itself "The Black Community." But five months later the University dropped all charges against nine students charged with the confiscation. Special Judicial Inquiry Officer Howard Arnold, who made the final ruling, said then that "ours is an academic community in which mistakes by students must be seen more as opportunities for education than as occasions for punishment."