[HN Gopher] Facial recognition tech gets woman booted from Rocke...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Facial recognition tech gets woman booted from Rockettes show due
       to employer
        
       Author : 04rob
       Score  : 489 points
       Date   : 2022-12-20 15:13 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nbcnewyork.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nbcnewyork.com)
        
       | gregors wrote:
       | The reason why we have "protected status" is that people were
       | banning people based on their racist/hate views. Those people
       | used their 5 senses to easily target the people they hated for
       | discrimination. Other variables (such as who you work for) well
       | that's not easily found out...until now. AI is now allowing for
       | new innovating hate and discrimination to drive decisions.
       | 
       | What an absolute cluster. I don't envy the courts. It's going to
       | be interesting if everyone starts weaponizing every aspect of
       | political affiliation, employment, residence location and social
       | status.
        
         | archontes wrote:
         | I think this should be protected.
         | 
         | A business owner should be able to decline to host someone
         | adversarial to that business.
        
         | dragonwriter wrote:
         | > The reason why we have "protected status" is that people were
         | banning people based on their racist/hate views. Those people
         | used their 5 senses to easily target the people they hated for
         | discrimination.
         | 
         | Easy targeting was not the issue, the combination of
         | pervasiveness and the belief that it was unwarranted and/or
         | resulted in an excess of social strife if tolerated was.
         | (Sometimes, it is misportrayed as being about innate
         | characteristics, but this is very obviously not the case with
         | religion, where freedom of religion as a right waa very clearly
         | the outcome of exhaustion with centuries of strife, largely
         | between different factions within Western Christianity.)
        
         | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
        
           | rexpop wrote:
        
           | acdha wrote:
           | It's an activist court. They'll block anything which could
           | discriminate against their supporters but as we've seen no
           | level of precedent is going to prevent a decision which those
           | supporters want unless there's an extremely clear direct
           | constitutional prohibition.
        
             | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
             | After taking a civics course in college and quitting social
             | media none of their decisions have shocked me. I think more
             | people need to learn the purpose and role of the court.
        
               | acdha wrote:
               | Shocked, no. Disappointed, yes. If you were willing to
               | explore the space intellectually you'd find many legal
               | scholars who could explain how what's happening now
               | represents a significant deviation from the past. The
               | discussion of the court's legitimacy isn't a social media
               | phenomenon.
        
         | madrox wrote:
         | Factor into this the consolidation of so many industries, and
         | if you happen to run afoul of one company you've effecively
         | become a pariah. Getting banned from Google is bad enough.
         | 
         | There is certainly a line that needs to be drawn, since I
         | somewhat understand the intent behind the ban. However, this
         | will quickly get out of hand now that we can effectively
         | disciminate on so many new factors scale.
        
         | bmitc wrote:
         | That's not what happened here though.
         | 
         | > "MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes
         | attorneys pursuing active litigation against the Company from
         | attending events at our venues until that litigation has been
         | resolved. While we understand this policy is disappointing to
         | some, we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an
         | inherently adverse environment. All impacted attorneys were
         | notified of the policy, including Davis, Saperstein and
         | Salomon, which was notified twice," a spokesperson for MSG
         | Entertainment said in a statement.
         | 
         | Seems pretty cut and dry if true. The law firm is litigating
         | against the company, and the company notified the law firm of
         | their policy to not allow employees to attend their venues.
         | 
         | If anything, lawyers deserve this treatment.
        
           | hgsgm wrote:
        
           | makestuff wrote:
           | Why do the lawyers deserve this?
           | 
           | I can kind of understand the lawyers actively involved in the
           | case being banned from the arena, but why should a lawyer who
           | is not even licensed in NY, and does not appear to be
           | involved in the case be banned?
           | 
           | Should lawyers be banned from going to hospitals they are
           | litigating against?
        
             | bmitc wrote:
             | That was just a sentiment because lawyers bring this
             | adversarial behavior into society, and I have a general
             | dislike of lawyers because of this behavior I've
             | experienced for no reason. (I was once threatened by a real
             | estate lawyer just because I chose another firm after an
             | initial phone call, for example.) Do they really deserve
             | it? Maybe not, but I'm not a huge fan of the power lawyers
             | wield and their incentives, so them getting a taste of
             | their own medicine seems okay with me. (This is a very
             | generic sentiment though, and not targeted towards
             | particular people.)
             | 
             | Regarding the policy, is it really that absurd? They are
             | being sued, presumably, by the law firm. When I was at a
             | company with ongoing IP litigation, there were extremely
             | strict measures put into place while that went on. The law
             | firm was even notified. So the lawyers purely ignored it.
             | Lawyers are pretty apt to point out when you ignore
             | communication, so why did they do it? They could have
             | communicated prior to the trip, but instead they showed up
             | and gave their surprised Pikachu face.
             | 
             | > Should lawyers be banned from going to hospitals they are
             | litigating against?
             | 
             | Irrelevant hypothetical because that's not what happened
             | here, and there are different rights to medical treatment
             | than there are for seeing an entertainment show.
        
         | tantalor wrote:
         | > used their 5 senses to easily target the people they hated
         | 
         | No. Very easy to disprove: there are many examples of protected
         | status that is not easy to tell just by looking at someone.
         | 
         | 1. Race (esp. mixed race)
         | 
         | 2. Religion
         | 
         | 3. Pregnancy
         | 
         | 4. National origin
         | 
         | 5. Sexual orientation
         | 
         | 6. Disability
         | 
         | 7. Genetics
        
           | ceejayoz wrote:
           | You've been downvoted, but I'd agree; most of them are not
           | necessarily "visually obvious" and more "stuff you can't
           | easily change".
        
           | michpoch wrote:
           | I assume that is a US thing. How does that exactly work? In
           | what sense are these people protected?
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | In the legal sense.
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_group#United_States
        
             | freeone3000 wrote:
             | You cannot, for instance, fire someone for being black.
             | These characteristics are protected in the sense that
             | discrimination against them in certain areas is illegal.
        
               | donmaq wrote:
               | > You cannot, for instance, fire someone for being black
               | 
               | So now companies don't put that as the termination
               | reason, & fire them anyway for 'culture fit'. Or leave
               | the term reason blank, b/c 'At-Will'.
               | 
               | "Protected class" isn't very protected, as it leaves
               | burden of proof to the victim, who needs to lawyer up &
               | chase the proof via discovery.
        
               | davidgay wrote:
               | > So now companies don't put that as the termination
               | reason, & fire them anyway for 'culture fit'. Or leave
               | the term reason blank, b/c 'At-Will'.
               | 
               | No, for large companies (those at risk of being sued) it
               | works the other way round: they collect very detailed
               | data to objectively justify any firing, otherwise they
               | are at high risk of losing a discrimination lawsuit.
               | 
               | Hence "improvement plans", "needs improvement" ratings,
               | etc, etc.
               | 
               | It is likely true that small and medium companies can get
               | away with abuse though.
        
               | mcherm wrote:
               | > "Protected class" isn't very protected, as it leaves
               | burden of proof to the victim
               | 
               | Surely though, you understand and agree that having this
               | law is better than the alternative, where employers ARE
               | allowed to fire someone simply for being a member of a
               | protected class, and are even welcome to brag about doing
               | so.
        
               | trompetenaccoun wrote:
               | Exactly, but there are even more fundamental problems
               | with all these identity laws.
               | 
               | 1. They're inherently unjust and anti-equality.
               | 
               | 2. In the case of stuff like race and gender, the law
               | doesn't even clearly define what terms like "black" and
               | "white" are supposed to mean. There is no scientific
               | definition because in physical reality race doesn't
               | exist. It's assumed everyone follows race ideology, but
               | even if we assumed that to be true then the premise of
               | such suits is that someone committed a thought crime.
               | Such cases are bound to lead to wrongful convictions as
               | well as actual discrimination going unpunished because it
               | can't be proven. These discrimination suits are the
               | modern day equivalent of medieval witch trials.
               | 
               | 3. They create division and conflict. That may be an
               | intentional feature instead of a bug though.
        
               | em-bee wrote:
               | i don't quite agree. the law provides that being part of
               | a protected group can not be used as a reason. that's
               | enough. there is no need to prove a thought-crime. there
               | is only need to prove that there is no justifiable reason
               | for the action that lead to the discrimination, eg no
               | justifiable reason to fire someone or to deny service.
               | finding the real reason for the discrimination is not
               | necessary
        
               | michpoch wrote:
               | Ok, but then the US Air Force would not hire anyone
               | shorter than 64 inches or taller than 77 inches. Your
               | height is a part of your genetics, you can't change it.
               | 
               | Why are people outside of this range not protected? Am I
               | oversimplifying something here?
        
               | aidenn0 wrote:
               | Many reasons that's not protected:
               | 
               | 1. The "Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act"
               | specifically bans using "Genetic Information" in certain
               | circumstances, which is generally understood to mean e.g.
               | DNA testing. Discriminating on height does not fall into
               | this.
               | 
               | 2. You could still fall into issues with e.g. the Civil
               | Rights Act of 1964 by having a height requirement if e.g.
               | far more men than women fall into that height range,
               | _however_ there are exceptions[A] built into that act
               | when a job has specific requirements, one being you can
               | ask for  "male models" to model clothing targeted at men.
               | 
               | A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_fide_occupational_q
               | ualifi...
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | oceanplexian wrote:
               | They are called bona fide occupational qualifications.
               | Even a private business can discriminate against say, an
               | actor who can't play a particular role due to the race or
               | gender of the character. Same goes with certain jobs that
               | involve lifting or an expected level physical fitness.
        
               | michpoch wrote:
               | Could you say that you need a white male bartender for
               | your pub in rural Texas, because your customers are
               | racist and sexist and anyone else would make them feel
               | uncomfortable? Or would that "choice" be limited by the
               | protected status?
        
               | unethical_ban wrote:
               | Look up the definition of the term "bona fide" and tell
               | me if you think that would qualify as a good faith
               | requirement allowing a business to discriminate their
               | workers.
        
               | unreal37 wrote:
               | Hooters hires "performers", not waitresses.
               | 
               | So this is indeed how it works.
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | Race can never be a BFOQ except in the specific case of
               | artistic works, due to the first amendment.
        
               | aidenn0 wrote:
               | In addition, mere customer satisfaction secondary to the
               | primary job is not enough to establish BFOQ; it's a thin
               | line though as Hooters seems to hide behind BFOQ (thus
               | essentially stating that the primary reason for their
               | serving staff is sex appeal), while flight attendants
               | cannot.
               | 
               | I suppose if you had an airline called "cleavage air" and
               | had all the flight attendants wear low-cut tops, then you
               | might get away with it.
        
               | michpoch wrote:
               | That is quite fascinating to me (as a layperson and non-
               | american). Are there any articles or is there any
               | literature that you'd advise in that topic?
               | 
               | I'd be interested in something that gives more context,
               | details and examples than the wikipedia article, but not
               | targeted at lawyers and not excessively long.
               | 
               | How does that work in practice for a company like Hooters
               | - do they spend millions on lawyers to be able to defend
               | their position? What if you'd open a local place working
               | in similar way to Hooters - would you go bankrupt trying
               | to defend yourself?
        
               | aidenn0 wrote:
               | I don't know of any good resources, but application of
               | the laws is mostly common-sense, with a slight bias
               | towards non-discrimination in the gray areas.
               | 
               | It doesn't take a lawyer to tell that Hooters' primary
               | product isn't chicken wings (Chris Rock even made a joke
               | about it).
               | 
               | The reason behind the laws isn't common-sense, in the
               | case that the 1964 Civil Rights Act is basically a list
               | of "things currently happening that we think are bad"
               | rather than an exhaustive list of things it's bad to
               | discriminate on; it's also limited somewhat by the legal
               | framework that the US congress was working within.
               | 
               | Labour laws in the US are also weird for similar reasons.
               | There was a point at which union members were beaten and
               | killed, with the local police being bought-off to not
               | intervene. It escalated to at least one pitched battle
               | between a private army and workers. Things like assault,
               | battery, and murder are enforced at the local ("state" in
               | the US terminology, not in the meaning everywhere else in
               | the world) level not federal level, so rather than
               | arresting the people doing this, laws were passed giving
               | special protections to unions. Then a few decades later
               | people argued that the special protections made unions
               | too powerful and a bunch of extra rules limiting what
               | unions can do were passed.
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | > _How does that work in practice for a company like
               | Hooters - do they spend millions on lawyers to be able to
               | defend their position?_
               | 
               | They certainly spend millions on lawyers. They've been
               | sued for not hiring men several times, AFAIK always
               | settle out of court. They defend their position by
               | claiming being a woman is a BFOQ for working at Hooters,
               | but aren't eager to risk losing in court.
        
               | aidenn0 wrote:
               | They have certainly been sued many times, but I could
               | only find two suits related to not hiring men. The older
               | one resulted in a large settlement and an agreement to
               | hire regardless of sex for non-waitress positions
               | (including bartender and host/hostess). The latter was
               | against a single franchise and had non-disclosed
               | settlement terms (I'm not sure how a class-action suit
               | can have a confidential settlement; wouldn't all members
               | of the class be notified?).
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | Indeed. The law says that sex is characteristic that
               | _may_ be a BFOQ, and in the case of Hooters it seems to
               | be. BFOQs may apply to sex, religion, and national
               | origin, but not the other protected classes.
        
               | michpoch wrote:
               | Could Hooters then reject a woman based on visual trait
               | connected to a race, arguing that it doesn't give her the
               | required "sex appeal"? Skin colour would be of course to
               | obvious, but lips size or body shape?
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | No.
               | 
               | The only way Hooters could in principle discriminate on
               | the basis of race is if they come up with some first
               | amendment pretext for it; e.g. the waitress job is
               | actually an artistic performance and for some reason the
               | art demands the performer be a certain race. That works
               | for movie productions, but for a bar hiring waitresses?
               | In practice it wouldn't work because the courts and the
               | public would both write you off as an obvious racist.
        
               | thaumasiotes wrote:
               | > except in the specific case of artistic works, due to
               | the first amendment.
               | 
               | The first amendment protected the Boy Scouts' right to
               | express their disapproval of gays by not employing them.
               | Is race different from a first amendment perspective?
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > Race can never be a BFOQ except in the specific case of
               | artistic works, due to the first amendment.
               | 
               | This is technically wrong, in that the First Amendment
               | limitation on title VII is separate from BFOQs, and race
               | can expressly never be a BFOQ. But the effect of the
               | limitation is similar to allowing race to work like a
               | BFOQ in certain circumstances in artistic contexts.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | > Why are people outside of this range not protected?
               | 
               | Because legislation has been written to target _certain_
               | characteristics. The experience of short people in
               | American history doesn 't quite match that of black, gay,
               | or disabled people, and thus it hasn't been legislated.
        
               | aidenn0 wrote:
               | If there weren't a BFOQ then this could be seen as veiled
               | sex discrimination since women are shorter than men on
               | average.
        
           | HWR_14 wrote:
           | In almost all cases, there were people in the protected group
           | who were able to disguise that status. So in those cases just
           | 5 senses weren't perfect. But it was sufficient for at least
           | some cases, which is where the laws came from.
        
           | moonchrome wrote:
           | Just because you can't tell 100% doesn't mean you can't
           | discriminate - and accuracy doesn't factor much in prejudice.
        
       | FunnyBadger wrote:
        
       | namaria wrote:
       | The problem here is not facial recognition or AI. The problem is
       | automatic and opaque enforcement of arbitrary rules with no
       | recourse. It's a scary world where you can be approached by
       | private security and forced to comply without recourse because
       | "the system" flagged you. This dehumanizes us. We're creating a
       | world where people are being treated like cattle, merely handled
       | by systems beyond our capacity to fight back.
        
         | Karunamon wrote:
         | This is a bit too Luddite for my taste. Humans were involved at
         | quite literally every step of this process. The human decided
         | that this other group of humans is not allowed on their
         | property. The only thing interesting the computer did is tell
         | security that someone not allowed to be there was there.
        
       | tmpburning wrote:
        
       | bluelightning2k wrote:
       | On the one hand this sounds super dystopian.
       | 
       | On the other hand it does kind of make sense that they would
       | refuse service to people actively suing their company. I would do
       | that too. I mean it's kind of common sense
        
       | mannykannot wrote:
       | "A spokesperson for MSG reiterated in a statement that safety is
       | their highest priority and that facial recognition is just one of
       | the methods they use. MSG Entertainment also said it is confident
       | their policy is in compliance with all applicable laws, including
       | the New York State Liquor Authority."
       | 
       | Why do spokespersons frequently speak in non-sequiturs? They
       | simply underline the absence of any good argument. I hope it
       | isn't because many people don't realize this, though I fear it
       | might be so.
       | 
       | I also hope the second sentence will turn out to be as logically
       | incoherent as the first.
        
         | robocat wrote:
         | > second sentence will turn out to be as logically incoherent
         | as the first
         | 
         | The key part of the second sentence: they are _confident_.
         | Tricky to argue just how confident they are.
        
         | voidmain0001 wrote:
         | This explains why MSG called out the NYSLA -
         | https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2022/12/07/madis...
        
           | mannykannot wrote:
           | Thanks for the link.
           | 
           | Notice that there is no claim here that it is a safety issue.
           | 
           | If MSG fears certain employees may reveal things it does not
           | want known, it should constrain those employees from contact
           | with the public within its venues.
        
             | pixl97 wrote:
             | Yea, I would go on to state that MSG is 'fucking dumb'.
             | Now, I don't know how things work in NY, but at least where
             | I'm from the lawyers do not go to your place of business
             | and ask questions. They go to the courts and put in a
             | filing for demands. If anyone shows up to question
             | employees it's going to be private investigators that are
             | seemingly unaffiliated and you won't know to block them in
             | the first place (NY law might be different here).
             | 
             | To me this screams "MSG is doing illegal/contract breaking
             | shit"
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | jerf wrote:
         | Because it works. Human brains are fairly bad at detecting non
         | sequiturs. Even with practice it is still hard, because the
         | brain does not want to activate the expensive rational thought
         | system unless there is a good reason. If you can get it to
         | activate that expensive system, it is often then easy to see
         | through, but that is a tall bar.
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | > Human brains are fairly bad at detecting non sequiturs.
           | 
           | I think it's more that we automatically try to fix them. If
           | you asked somebody to recall and reproduce those sentences
           | after reading them, they would unconsciously add information
           | to what they recalled until it turned into a reasonable
           | defense.
        
       | josephcsible wrote:
       | I feel like the facial recognition part of this is a red herring.
       | The two bigger problems I see here are banning people because of
       | what their co-workers are doing, and enforcing bans when people
       | show up instead of when they buy their tickets.
        
       | stickyricky wrote:
       | Businesses which sell to the public should provide accommodation
       | for the public. Bad actors should be handled by the legal system.
       | When their sentence expires they should be allowed to re-enter
       | the public spaces they previously disrupted. A private "legal
       | system" administered by global conglomerates is totalitarianism
       | by another form.
        
       | dbttdft wrote:
       | How does some bar theater whatever have a database of where
       | people work? This is broken as fuck.
        
       | MonkeyMalarky wrote:
       | A lawyer and a Rockettes show today, could be an angry tweeter
       | and their tesla tomorrow or your Facebook post and a healthcare
       | provider.
        
         | Am4TIfIsER0ppos wrote:
         | That is the ultimate goal of all facial recognition: to
         | identify subversives and remove them from society.
        
           | mrexroad wrote:
           | And don't forget that facial recognition is only one tool for
           | identifying individuals-- gait recognition, clothing
           | patterns, etc. are utilized as well.
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | xdavidliu wrote:
         | nit: transpose "Rockettes show" with "Lawyer" to get the
         | correct parallel construction
        
           | MonkeyMalarky wrote:
           | Aha!
        
         | version_five wrote:
         | Yes this was exactly my thought. Every day we hear about
         | someone kicked off google without recourse, often because of an
         | automated decision incorrectly made. How long until people are
         | banned from public venues for the same reason?
         | 
         | For a long time now, governments have failed to modernize laws
         | and regulations, and companies have stepped in with their own
         | vigilante systems. We don't need more regulation, but we need
         | updated standards for how technology like facial recognition
         | can be aligned with previous norms and laws that came into
         | existence when mass surveillance and communication tech didnt
         | exist
        
           | thesuitonym wrote:
           | > We don't need more regulation, but we need updated
           | standards
           | 
           | Otherwise known as regulations. If it's just a standard
           | that's not enforceable, companies will not comply.
        
           | phkahler wrote:
           | >> but we need updated standards for how technology like
           | facial recognition can be aligned with previous norms and
           | laws
           | 
           | Can we just make personal data collection and sharing
           | illegal? We got by before this was even possible.
        
             | [deleted]
        
       | tomatotomato37 wrote:
       | Everyone always goes for the discrimination angle, but what
       | frightens me is that like other modern automated tech of this
       | decade the facial recognition used here probably has a horrendous
       | false positive rate which most institutions will none the less
       | treat as the final truth. Unrelated this is also why I fear most
       | of this new AI stuff so much despite working in the field; the
       | accuracy rates on these things in production is atrocious.
        
         | lja wrote:
         | The false positive rate on quality facial recognition is
         | actually very low. I'm not weighing in whether or not it is
         | proper to always use it, just as someone that's deeply
         | experienced in commercial applications of facial recognition.
        
           | monksy wrote:
           | It's not just that. It's the collection of updated face data
           | that's a concern.
           | 
           | They're taking an image, segmenting out the face and they're
           | improving an existing model for that individual. Super scary
           | stuff that's going on. (Other than the fact that they have an
           | existing image)
           | 
           | If she was in IL .. she should persue them with the BIPA act.
        
           | Majromax wrote:
           | > The false positive rate on quality facial recognition is
           | actually very low.
           | 
           | It depends on the purpose. For identity verification
           | purposes, when you already have independent reason to suspect
           | that someone is specifically Person X, then a "very low"
           | false positive rate is likely sufficient.
           | 
           | For filtering, however, "very low" isn't enough. Suppose your
           | facial recognition system has a 0.001% false positive rate
           | (one per 100k), but you have a list of 1000 banned faces and
           | your venue sees 10,000 visitors per night. You're making ten
           | _million_ comparisons, and that  "very low" false positive
           | rate will still result in 100 false matches.
           | 
           | That could still be okay, if a match just involves (here)
           | pulling the patron aside for an ID verification. Asking 100
           | people for ID is much more benign than turning 100 people
           | away at the turnstile. MSG here did appear to follow the
           | match with a secondary verification (per the article), but I
           | shudder to think of all the venues that will hear "very low
           | false positive rate" and not really think through the
           | consequences.
        
             | lja wrote:
             | I completely agree with you on this point. AI practitioners
             | have an ethical responsibility to communicate these
             | shortcomings to clients. I know my firm regularly talks to
             | clients how humans should intervene in the AI systems we
             | build. It's a necessary conversation to ensure clients know
             | we aren't building them something flawless.
             | 
             | I loved your .001% example, I'm going to steal that when I
             | talk folks. We often describe how systems fail at scale and
             | talk about how being wrong 1/1,000,000 times can wildly
             | backfire at large numbers.
             | 
             | All that being said, I just don't want people around this
             | forum thinking facial recognition is some fringe, low
             | accuracy modeling exercise like they used to be. The models
             | are actually incredibly impressive these days.
        
           | idiocrat wrote:
           | The low rate of false positives have been well documented in
           | the Archibald Buttle vs Archibald Tuttle case.
           | 
           | And the government never makes mistakes.
        
         | tomp wrote:
         | They didn't ban her on the basis of face recognition. She just
         | got flagged by security, after which they asked for her ID and
         | banned her on the basis of her real identity.
         | 
         | So the chance of false positives is minimal.
        
           | akira2501 wrote:
           | So.. what if she wasn't carrying ID? Now it's back to a
           | judgement call, and I can bet I know which side the guards
           | are going to err on.
        
           | mrguyorama wrote:
           | I give it a year before the venue fires the bouncer to pinch
           | pennies and just relies on the facial scanner
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | I don't like the consequences of facial recognition tech and what
       | it's going to do to our society and its potential to enhance
       | social discrimination of all kinds, but I have a hard time
       | faulting the venue for using it to enforce an (arguably
       | reasonable, or at least legally viable) admittance policy that
       | had been communicated beforehand to the law firm. This doesn't
       | seem to be a case of discrimination.
        
       | gedy wrote:
       | I morbidly enjoy this idea, but only as an extreme form of tort
       | reform.
        
       | benreesman wrote:
       | The Constitution wasn't designed for this. The framers did an
       | amazing job at writing documents and expressing ideals that have
       | held up astonishingly well through insane technological change.
       | 
       | But if I want my face catalogued next to my social credit score
       | why not go all in and move to China?
       | 
       | It's not great but the only mechanism in sight that seems
       | equipped to deal with this is restraint semi-enforced by social
       | consensus. God knows Congress isn't going to do anything: piss
       | off both law enforcement and tech? Yeah I think that's a hard
       | pass from them.
        
         | nonrandomstring wrote:
         | Take some hope. This case exposes the technology for the naked
         | fascism it really is. We always knew this is where it would
         | lead, and that there are few legitimate, ethical uses for face
         | recognition tech. That it was a lawyer taking her kid to a show
         | is priceless and will surely contribute to the blanket ban we
         | all hope for.
        
         | humanistbot wrote:
         | > The Constitution wasn't designed for this.
         | 
         | The Constitution wasn't designed for a multi-racial democracy,
         | either. It took a bloody civil war to settle the slavery
         | question though.
        
           | inetknght wrote:
           | And even after the civil war was ended, over 150 years ago,
           | there's still significant portions of people in the modern
           | day who don't act as if the matter is settled.
        
         | beepbooptheory wrote:
         | I know this is just a rhetorical point of yours, but maybe we
         | can start to accept that America and the west as whole is not
         | actually significantly different from China with stuff like
         | this.
         | 
         | Thinking about it, why would we be? I can't see a good answer
         | to that without appealing to weird/nationalistic/naive ideas
         | about the moral character of states themselves, or simply the
         | understanble nonlogic of "well this is my country, they wouldnt
         | be like that _here_. " At the end of the day, priorites are
         | priorites, incentives are incentives. Efficiency doesn't know
         | or care about culture, it is self-justifying.
        
           | chrisbaker98 wrote:
           | > America and the west as whole is not actually significantly
           | different from China with stuff like this.
           | 
           | As someone who has spent many years of my life living outside
           | "America and the West": this is not remotely true.
        
             | FredPret wrote:
             | I moved from outside into the West and I'm inclined to
             | agree with you. It feels different here. There's much more
             | trust, even when Westerners mock their institutions, there
             | is a higher baseline and more implied trust.
        
       | sneak wrote:
       | Covid is still around. Always wear your mask in public.
       | 
       | Don't show ID unless it's a cop demanding it (when it's legally
       | required). Private parties can't demand ID. Don't give ID for
       | routine transactions. Practice saying no to routine demands for
       | your papers.
       | 
       | It doesn't improve unless a lot of us start ending the
       | transactions.
        
         | eouwt wrote:
         | It's not uncommon for the T&Cs of tickets and such to require
         | photo ID...in which case?
        
         | xoa wrote:
         | > _Private parties can 't demand ID._
         | 
         | What? Can you cite any laws legally barring people for
         | requiring ID for a business transaction or to access private
         | property? I've honestly never heard of such a thing. Obviously
         | if a private person says "I want to see your ID for access or
         | before completing this transaction" you may legally refuse, and
         | they cannot arrest you or anything. But they can then in turn
         | refuse to complete the transaction.
        
       | bewaretheirs wrote:
       | Many organizations (including the Girl Scouts) have required
       | chaperone-to-kid ratios for trips like this.
       | 
       | Booting one chaperone from a trip could put the entire party out
       | of compliance with the organization's policy and require
       | exclusion of some fraction of the group or possibly cancellation
       | of the trip.
       | 
       | Typical Girl Scout policy here:
       | 
       | https://www.gsnorcal.org/content/dam/girlscouts-gsnorcal/doc...
       | 
       | (Note the requirement that at least one chaperone be female and
       | at least two of the chaperones be unrelated, and note that if you
       | have to split the girls you probably need to send a minimum of
       | two chaperones with each half..)
        
         | s1artibartfast wrote:
         | Maybe the girlscouts should set up facial recognition for their
         | troop events to identify and blacklist policy violators.
        
       | hnuser847 wrote:
       | TL;DR A personal injury lawyer ("in a wreck, need a check?") was
       | banned from an attending a show. She attended anyway and was
       | asked to leave. Computers were involved.
        
         | mcphage wrote:
         | > was banned from an attending a show.
         | 
         | Weird that they still sold her a ticket, though.
        
           | patja wrote:
           | It is possible that the tickets were bought by someone else
           | for the group without individually assigned names.
        
       | habibur wrote:
       | Employee - Employer is here a lawyer based on the law firm.
       | Before you click the title and waste your time.
        
         | worik wrote:
         | Do lawyers have fewer human rights?
        
       | reaperducer wrote:
       | Up next: Everyone on HN who posted that they disagree with MSG's
       | use of facial recognition is permabanned from all MSG venues,
       | with no notice or recourse.
        
         | theironhammer wrote:
        
       | whoopdedo wrote:
       | What does the Bar have to say about being a customer of a
       | business you're suing. Wouldn't this be more of a concern for the
       | law firm than the venue?
       | 
       | But I can see how this has a chilling effect if you can lose
       | access to goods and services because you're taking legal action
       | against the company. Reminds me of the story I heard, though I
       | forget the details (or even if it was true), about someone
       | retaining numerous law firms which made it nearly impossible to
       | find a lawyer who could sue them without it being a conflict-of-
       | interest.
        
         | lscdlscd wrote:
         | You might be thinking of the Sopranos:
         | 
         | SPOILER
         | 
         | When Tony and Carmine are getting divorced, Tony consults with
         | every lawyer in town, creating a conflict of interest and not
         | allowing Carmine to use them.
        
           | 1123581321 wrote:
           | Also a plot point in Noah Baumbach's movie Marriage Story.
        
           | bee_rider wrote:
           | Although -- I've only seen this on, like, other online
           | chitchats so take it with a heap of salt, but -- I'm under
           | the impression that the main thing accomplished if someone
           | tried these sorts of antics in real life would be a
           | reasonably pissed off judge with reason to believe that one
           | party wasn't engaging with the legal system in good faith.
        
             | strix_varius wrote:
             | I have personal experience with this. Small town. Handful
             | of law firms. None of them would take a case against a
             | local small business because they all had some kind of
             | relationship with that business.
             | 
             | The case was strong, and I had no trouble hiring a
             | reputable firm one town over to litigate, but it was
             | inconvenient and one can imagine a scenario in which there
             | is no "one town over" with alternatives.
        
           | somebody78978 wrote:
           | *Carmella, not Carmine, lol. Carmine is another mob boss.
        
         | eastbound wrote:
         | Imagine doing a chargeback on Google for a bug in their app
         | purchase, and your Gmail accounts being revoked.
        
         | justincormack wrote:
         | What does the bar have to say about facial recognition for all
         | its members being easily available to anyone with money,
         | apparently? Where does the data come from?
        
         | rtkwe wrote:
         | She's only tangentially related not directly on the team,
         | though it would imo be odder for MSG to know the entirety and
         | status of everyone working for someone suing them so it's
         | simpler to just ban everyone employed at the firm.
        
         | philip1209 wrote:
         | Imagine this system, but for chargebacks. "You issued a charge
         | back against us once, so you're no longer allowed in any of our
         | physical locations ever again. You should have talked to us
         | first."
        
         | unyttigfjelltol wrote:
         | I think the issue is that MSG is too big of an organization to
         | fairly institute a policy like this. It's like [FAANG of
         | choice] refusing to serve someone because their
         | [mother/spouse/hairdresser] posted a bad review of the coffee
         | at [FAANG's] office in [fill in a city].
         | 
         | Maybe said company can have such a policy, but they probably
         | shouldn't.
        
         | vorpalhex wrote:
         | As someone not involved in the suit?
        
           | _trampeltier wrote:
           | It was here on HN, but I also don't remember the details. I
           | think it was like a big company had a relationship with
           | almost all layers or something like this.
        
       | crmd wrote:
       | The legal rights of a corporation should rapidly decrease as it
       | gains market power. My neighborhood bar should be allowed to 86
       | me for just about anything, but Madison Square Garden
       | Entertainment, Ticketmaster, and Live Nation should not. Same
       | thing with google and Amazon banning people from their platform
       | for a single good faith credit card chargeback.
        
         | pfisherman wrote:
         | This is a pretty interesting concept. I think way this is
         | described as "fewer rights" is not precise enough to pass
         | muster. But I agree with the principle that the harm to an
         | individual resulting from a ban is proportional to its scale /
         | reach.
         | 
         | For example, getting banned from all McDonald's restaurants is
         | qualitatively different from getting banned from one McDonald's
         | restaurant.
         | 
         | So how does one go about qualifying / quantifying (1) the
         | potential risk or harm caused by an individual violating terms
         | for service and (2) the harm caused to the individual resulting
         | from corrective actions; and then balance the two against each
         | other?
        
         | monksy wrote:
         | Consider your neighborhood bar may be under a group, i.e.
         | hammock hospitality group.
        
         | francisofascii wrote:
         | Unless your neighborhood bar is the only bar.
        
           | s1artibartfast wrote:
           | I don't think I agree. You don't have right to be served
           | alcohol within convenient walking distance.
        
           | pixl97 wrote:
           | I mean, there are lots of other bars, so it's not really
           | meaningful statement.
        
       | JackFr wrote:
       | Seems like it's an unpopular opinion, but it seems fairly
       | reasonable to me to restrict someone who is currently, actively
       | suing you from using your place of business.
       | 
       | It's neither punitive nor petty. It's simply practical from a
       | legal perspective.
        
         | gnopgnip wrote:
         | If you want to ban someone from using your place of business
         | you shouldn't take their money and sell them a ticket to a show
         | then
        
         | dragonwriter wrote:
         | > it seems fairly reasonable to me to restrict someone who is
         | currently, actively suing you from using your place of
         | business.
         | 
         | This isn't someone who is actively suing them.
        
           | mbg721 wrote:
           | Even if it were, would that make it better??
        
         | amanj41 wrote:
         | I don't take issue to that. I think using facial recognition
         | paired with a database of naughty / nice individuals is going
         | to pose a plethora of societal issues down the road. It is
         | evocative of China's social credit system somewhat.
        
       | godelski wrote:
       | How did they identify her? Where is MSG getting the data for
       | their facial recognition? This part is confusing to me (I assume
       | some third party vendor, but that's besides the point). Do they
       | have you upload a photo of yourself? Do they have access to
       | driver license photos? If the latter, that's a serious issue that
       | I think we should be talking about: private companies having
       | access to government biometric data. It's already an issue that
       | the gov can track us, but even bigger if they are giving that
       | data to corporations. I think that's the bigger story here.
        
         | foolfoolz wrote:
         | there are tons of people id databases. the photos probably came
         | from her posted to her own account somewhere and got scraped
        
         | xapata wrote:
         | Probably from a photograph on the lawyer's website. They often
         | post photographs of themselves looking pleasant and well-
         | dressed, along with a summary of their careers.
        
           | godelski wrote:
           | Still, this doesn't leave me with a good taste in my mouth.
        
       | kstrauser wrote:
       | I'm thrilled to see facial recognition applied against people in
       | a position to speak out loudly against it. A lot of people seem
       | OK with it when it's policing the bad parts of town. This is
       | their reminder that it can be used against them, too.
        
         | A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
         | Oddly, me too. Things change only when a representative
         | sufficiently well connected person/high status individual is
         | inconvenienced by the current system. Lately, this seems to be
         | the way to actually change things.
         | 
         | << A lot of people seem OK with it when it's policing the bad
         | parts of town. This is their reminder that it can be used
         | against them, too.
         | 
         | What is fascinating is that AI recognition did not reach
         | individual homes yet ( say.. won't let you add family members
         | to 'approved' members to open doors, but maybe I should not be
         | giving ideas ). I did hear about it being a toy for the rich
         | though.
        
         | test6554 wrote:
         | Just because you have someone on camera committing a crime in
         | this age of deep fakes is no guarantee that they are guilty...
         | But it definitely provides police with a suspect to investigate
         | further.
         | 
         | The most devastating tool for fighting crime is not increasing
         | the penalties or making jail more miserable. No, the most
         | effective way to stop crime is by drastically increasing the
         | chances of getting caught and correctly sentenced.
        
           | kstrauser wrote:
           | I'm wholeheartedly against facial recognition in legal
           | systems. The fact is that they don't work well, and they
           | specifically have a bad tendency to identify the wrong black
           | person much more often than they misidentify white people.
           | From [3] below:
           | 
           | > Asian and African American people were up to 100 times more
           | likely to be misidentified than white men, depending on the
           | particular algorithm and type of search. Native Americans had
           | the highest false-positive rate of all ethnicities, according
           | to the study, which found that systems varied widely in their
           | accuracy.
           | 
           | One. Hundred. Times. The camera may say it recorded John
           | Smith breaking into a house, but it's incredibly likely that
           | it was actually Ron Jones. Who's the jury going to believe,
           | though: John Smith who was at home with his girlfriend at the
           | time, or the hugely expensive video system that the city just
           | bought?
           | 
           | Facial recognition doesn't work. It's bullshit tech, and we
           | should stop using it until we make it deliver on its promises
           | AND decide how to deal with its ramifications.
           | 
           | [1] https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2020/racial-
           | discriminatio...
           | 
           | [2] https://www.wired.com/story/best-algorithms-struggle-
           | recogni...
           | 
           | [3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/19/fede
           | ral...
        
             | LarryMullins wrote:
             | I think it's possible that multispectral imaging may solve
             | the difficulties these systems have with dark skin. However
             | even if this were resolved, I would still oppose these
             | systems because I don't want to live in a panopticon prison
             | society, even if all the technology works correctly and
             | never makes a false accusation. I think such a society is
             | aesthetically disgusting.
             | 
             | Furthermore, an accurate system is not the same as a
             | morally just system. A ubiquitous system which recognizes
             | people with 100% accuracy could be used for evil if it ever
             | fell into the wrong hands. Such powerful systems should
             | never be created in the first place, the juice isn't worth
             | the squeeze.
        
             | superbatfish wrote:
             | I'm afraid you have it exactly backwards. The problem isn't
             | that it doesn't work -- the problem is that it _does_ work.
             | And to the extent that it isn 't perfect, well, it's still
             | improving all the time. You cited a 3-year-old article
             | reporting on data from up to eleven(!) years ago -- an
             | eternity in this field. Not even worth reading at this
             | point.
             | 
             | The racial bias issue is still important for now, but it's
             | fast becoming irrelevant. We should be asking ourselves
             | where our priorities lie even if bias weren't a concern.
        
         | bboygravity wrote:
         | I don't think what a lot of people think about facial
         | recognition is very relevant for its adoption or evolution?
         | 
         | CCTV and facial recognition are both used around the world
         | accross cultures and political systems and not 1 citizen voted
         | for (or against) them. Not in totalitarian regimes nor in
         | countries that pretend to be democratic.
        
           | oceanplexian wrote:
           | It's because we aren't governed by a democracy, we're
           | governed by a massive administrative state. Some middle
           | manager vying for a promotion decides adding cameras will
           | benefit him in some way, privacy be damned. For example, TSA
           | recently started doing facial recognition in airports and
           | most passengers were just happily going along with it last
           | time I went through security. The public is expected to
           | submit and comply, there's no democracy anywhere in that
           | process.
        
             | kstrauser wrote:
             | I get the lack of resistance to the TSA thing. I'm not
             | saying my opinion here is the correct one, but here's how I
             | see it:
             | 
             | That ship has sailed. You no longer have a reasonable
             | expectation of privacy in an airport. Courts have ruled
             | that safety concerns override privacy considerations inside
             | them. Alright, well, if this is the system we're stuck
             | with, then we might as well make it efficient. Now we have
             | TSA PreCheck where you can give up all pretense of personal
             | privacy in exchange for a relatively pleasant airport
             | experience. And the facial recognition kiosks I've seen
             | don't seem inherently more invasive than having a human
             | security guard doing their functional equivalent, and we've
             | had that for many years.
             | 
             | I'm not thrilled about the situation, but feel powerless to
             | change it. It seems like the majority of my countrymen
             | think this a good tradeoff, so I can't say I'm fully on the
             | right side of the argument anyway. So if stuck with a
             | system I can't change, and most people don't _want_ to
             | change, if this makes the practical experience of dealing
             | with that system faster and less unpleasant, then fine. So
             | be it.
        
               | duped wrote:
               | Human security guards forget. Servers don't.
               | 
               | I don't mind a security guard checking my ID. I do mind
               | some random contractor building a facial recognition
               | system that does it automatically and saves my picture
               | and my identification information for all time without my
               | consent or control.
        
               | kstrauser wrote:
               | Sure, I'm with you on that. As a one-time transactional
               | system, like verifying that the person presenting an ID
               | card is the person on its photo, fine. I don't want it
               | going into a permanent database.
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | > _TSA PreCheck_
               | 
               | That system was created to avoid what you mention
               | earlier, privileged people in society being
               | inconvenienced and feeling motivated to speak out against
               | these systems. Instead of subjecting the movers and
               | shakers to the full brunt of the TSA, such people are
               | allowed to opt out of the tyranny for a small (to them)
               | fee.
        
           | kstrauser wrote:
           | Democracies have more luck voting against them:
           | https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-bans-
           | use...
        
         | commandlinefan wrote:
         | > it can be used against them, too
         | 
         | Is it facial recognition that's the problem here, or the policy
         | itself? In theory, they could hand out pictures of everybody
         | who wasn't allowed in to the security staff and use low-tech
         | facial recognition to enforce the same policy - assuming it was
         | scalable, would it be OK then? I remember reading that IBM got
         | into trouble when it first computerized its personnel files
         | because some exec noticed that the computer could scan through
         | all the personnel files and fire people who were close to
         | retirement to save on paying out their pensions. It would have
         | been prohibitively expensive to pay a person to do that, but
         | with the computer, it was a quick SQL query (or whatever query
         | language IBM used back then). The problem wasn't that the
         | personnel files were computerized, it was that they were being
         | used in a very evil way.
        
           | TheFattestNinja wrote:
           | Both. Id argue that in addition to the policy being bad, she
           | probably didnt agree to her image feeding into the dataset
           | backing the facial recognition, which raised some spicy
           | privacy questions: how did this private company get the
           | image? Under what terms of use?
        
             | archontes wrote:
             | Consent isn't required if you don't have a reasonable
             | expectation of privacy.
             | 
             | I can take your photo in public, and there's nothing you
             | can do about it.
             | 
             | I can even distribute that photo, and you can't, and if you
             | do, I can sue you for copyright infringement. I own your
             | likeness, in a finite way.
             | 
             | https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/but-it-s-a-photo-of-me-
             | cel...
        
               | saveferris wrote:
               | Not so fast....In Illinois anyway. You cannot do any of
               | that without consent if you use that data for any
               | commercial purpose.
               | 
               | https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=300
               | 4&C...
               | 
               | I think anyway, IANAL but I believe this law prohibits
               | the collection of, in this case, images/facial
               | recognition, etc.
               | 
               | So, you can take my picture in public and keep it on your
               | phone, you cannot upload it to say Instagram without my
               | permission, all kinds of recent lawsuits about it. I
               | think the intent of the law is to prevent my picture from
               | winding up in say Instagram without my permission but for
               | sure it cannot be used in the way it was used in the
               | article - to scan it and prohibit me from entering an
               | establishment. Apparently, no matter what state I go
               | to....
               | 
               | https://www.reuters.com/technology/one-us-state-stands-
               | out-r...
               | 
               | It's a complex law and a complex topic in general so I am
               | not 100% sure what is and isn't covered....
               | 
               | edit; spelling
        
               | hgsgm wrote:
        
           | quanticle wrote:
           | assuming it was scalable, would it be OK then?
           | 
           | The problem with automated facial recognition technology is
           | that it makes what used to be infeasible suddenly routine and
           | cheap. In the past, would the security folks at Madison
           | Square Garden have even thought about implementing this kind
           | of policy? No, of course not; it would have been obvious from
           | the very beginning that such a policy would have required far
           | too many resources to feasibly implement. At best, they'd
           | have been able to hand out pictures of a few folks, known to
           | be bad actors, and told their security personnel, "Hey, watch
           | out for these people and don't let them in." It's highly
           | unlikely that a random obscure attorney working at the same
           | firm, but not specifically tied to the litigation at hand,
           | would have made it onto that list.
           | 
           | However, today, with facial recognition, it's possible for
           | Madison Square Garden to have blacklists consisting of
           | thousands, or even tens of thousands of people and check
           | against them just as quickly and as easily as if they were a
           | list of a dozen people. That's a qualitative change, and I
           | think it's valid to treat it as a separate kind of thing than
           | a bunch of security guards, each with a stack of photographs.
        
             | wombatpm wrote:
             | This is while it's in the hands of corporations. Wait until
             | the local HOA sets up cameras to real-time scan for people
             | on the sex offender registry.
             | 
             | In the future ounishowill be swift and eternal
        
           | nonrandomstring wrote:
           | > Is it facial recognition that's the problem here
           | 
           | Yes I think so. Some technologies are _inherently_ no good,
           | lacking any obvious positive use cases, but enabling obvious
           | abuse. It is a mistake to shift the blame to  "policy" or
           | malevolent actors and claim the technology is merely a
           | neutral enabler. No. The technology itself contains a gamut
           | of evils.
        
           | kstrauser wrote:
           | You're right: it's the _policy_ that 's bad. However, facial
           | recognition is what makes enforcing that policy possible, and
           | society and the law haven't changed quickly enough to deal
           | with the repercussions.
           | 
           | For instance, say 18 year old "Joe" gets caught stealing soda
           | from a fast food place. The manager kicks him out and bans
           | him from the store. Fast forward a decade, when Joe walks
           | back into the store with his wife and kid to buy a quick
           | meal.
           | 
           | Without facial recognition: Joe's grown up and matured. The
           | manager was either replaced years ago, or doesn't remember
           | the incident, or vaguely remembers but doesn't care about it
           | anymore. Joe and his family pay, eat, and leave.
           | 
           | With facial recognition: the system notices that someone on
           | its "do not allow" list has entered the store and summons
           | police to deal with the trespasser.
           | 
           | When human judgment is involved, we rarely deal with
           | absolutes. A lifetime ban isn't really for life. It's until
           | both parties grow up and the situation cools down. A ban on a
           | competitor's employees isn't absolute. Maybe you won't serve
           | the owner, but if his dishwasher comes to your place on a
           | date, you're not gonna hassle the kid. We're really, _really_
           | bad at designing automated systems that handle nuance. It 's
           | way easier to write code like `if photo_hash in
           | banned_people: ...`.
        
             | underwater wrote:
             | Scale is also an issue. So many things are either owned by
             | a megacorp or run via a centralised platform. Getting
             | banned by a store pales in comparison to being banned by
             | Uber, Google, Visa, etc.
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | Just as most websites today use captchas run by one or
               | two companies, we may see a scenario unfold where most
               | brick and mortar businesses use a facial recognition
               | blacklisting system run by one or two companies. Get
               | labelled as trouble by the system and you'll be banned by
               | every store in town.
        
               | phpisthebest wrote:
               | See Las Vegas Casio's who have been doing that for awhile
        
               | thwarted wrote:
               | This was already a problem with the email spam
               | blacklists, DNSBL.
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | This is not allowed in my state thank god
        
               | kstrauser wrote:
               | That's a great point. For that matter, imagine that being
               | maintained by Verisign or the like. Get a ding on your
               | social credit report, and voila, you can't walk into a
               | grocery store anymore.
        
             | monksy wrote:
             | This is happening already with PatronScan which is being
             | pushed agressively into schools, and bars:
             | https://scribe.nixnet.services/id-at-the-door-meet-the-
             | secur...
             | 
             | There have been references to the ban lists going from one
             | venue to another.
        
               | Nifty3929 wrote:
               | Can you imagine getting into an argument with a bartender
               | and being asked to leave - and then you can't go into any
               | other bars either? Yikes!
               | 
               | Reminds me of the hidden low-level-banking-employee
               | blacklist that some would end up on for not forcing
               | enough customers into expensive products they didn't
               | need.
               | 
               | Or the opiate painkiller registry that doctors use to
               | centrally track folks who come to them for painkillers,
               | and which by the way counts any painkillers you might
               | have gotten from the vet for your dog.
               | 
               | Fewer central registries please!
        
               | lmm wrote:
               | Blacklisting is something we already recognise as wrong;
               | banning who you want from your own establishment is fine,
               | but passing around a list of people and banning them on
               | someone else's say-so isn't. Perhaps the laws against it
               | should be enforced, or strengthened.
        
               | ryandrake wrote:
               | I think in many contexts this would be desirable. If
               | someone was belligerent and gets banned for starting a
               | fight on Delta airline, I wouldn't want to sit next to
               | him on my United airline flight. Venues should have the
               | freedom to use whatever judgment/algorithm they feel will
               | keep their customers safe, including sharing lists of
               | troublemakers. If the list is too inaccurate, it stops
               | doing its job and becomes a net-no-help to the venue
               | using it.
        
               | lmm wrote:
               | That's how you end up with redlining or worse. It's too
               | easy to slip a few "undesirables" into the list you're
               | sharing, and as long as you don't do it too often then
               | your list remains a net-positive so people keep doing it.
               | (See also the guy who put his ex-wife on the no-fly
               | list).
               | 
               | For something like starting a fight, you can go by actual
               | court records, which are public and have processes in
               | place to correct them if they're wrong (and we have rules
               | about e.g. when convictions should be expunged). Just
               | sharing lists of names is too abusable.
        
               | Nifty3929 wrote:
               | I don't know of any laws against this at all, at least in
               | the United States.
        
               | jsjohnst wrote:
               | Laws around collusion might vaguely apply, but it would
               | be a real stretch imho.
        
               | bigwavedave wrote:
               | The parent may be referring to employment laws; google
               | claims 29 states have made blacklisting illegal in an
               | employment context.
        
             | rg111 wrote:
             | It's always the policy that should be modified, and not the
             | tech that should be stopped.
             | 
             | Because bad policies can do only damage.
             | 
             | And tech can do both good and bad.
        
               | kstrauser wrote:
               | I'd amend that: it's always the policy that should be
               | modified _in the longer run_. Sometimes it's wholly
               | appropriate to pump the brakes on the tech that would
               | allow mass application of the bad policy.
        
             | bmitc wrote:
             | Why is the policy bad? They are preventing employees from a
             | law firm in active litigation with them from attending
             | their venues while the litigation takes place. It's not
             | some draconian thing.
        
               | monsieurbanana wrote:
               | I'm certain you didn't read the article. The link between
               | the woman and the litige case is very tenuous.
               | 
               | She doesn't work on the case, and the venue has nothing
               | to do with the case either, besides that a huge
               | corporation owns both the venue and the restaurant under
               | litigation.
        
               | bmitc wrote:
               | I did read it. MSG notified the law firm of their policy
               | while the litigation is ongoing, twice.
               | 
               | > "MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes
               | attorneys pursuing active litigation against the Company
               | from attending events at our venues until that litigation
               | has been resolved. While we understand this policy is
               | disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact that
               | litigation creates an inherently adverse environment. All
               | impacted attorneys were notified of the policy, including
               | Davis, Saperstein and Salomon, which was notified twice,"
               | a spokesperson for MSG Entertainment said in a statement.
        
               | monsieurbanana wrote:
               | That does sound pretty draconian to me, you haven't
               | adressed my point.
        
               | techwizrd wrote:
               | Also from the article:
               | 
               | (a) Conlon does not practice law in New York where Radio
               | City Music Hall is located.
               | 
               | (b) Conlon is not an attorney pursuing active litigation
               | against the MSG Entertainment. She works for a NJ-based
               | law firm who representing another party in litigation
               | against an unrelated restaurant which now happens to now
               | be owned by MSG Entertainment. She's not part of that
               | ongoing litigation.
               | 
               | (c) > A recent judge's order in one of those cases made
               | it clear that ticketholders like her "may not be denied
               | entry to any shows."
               | 
               | (d) > "The liquor license that MSG got requires them to
               | admit members of the public, unless there are people who
               | would be disruptive who constitute a security threat,"
               | said Davis. "Taking a mother, separating a mother from
               | her daughter and Girl Scouts she was watching over -- and
               | to do it under the pretext of protecting any disclosure
               | of litigation information -- is absolutely absurd.
               | 
               | Refusing her entry doesn't even make sense according to
               | their stated policy, and it is absolutely _draconian_.
               | She doesn't work on the case--she just happens to work
               | for the same company. If this firm was representing a
               | client suing Meta or Google or Apple, would it be okay
               | for Meta/Google/Apple to ban all attorneys from using all
               | of their services? This type of behavior just discourages
               | firms from taking on clients suing large companies.
        
               | romwell wrote:
               | The policy is bad because it results in unfair outcomes.
        
               | bmitc wrote:
               | When are lawyers considered with fairness?
               | 
               | I'm not sure I see what's unfair here. They were
               | notified. If they wanted to negotiate around it, they
               | could have done ahead of time. They're lawyers. They
               | should know to read material they're sent.
        
             | Gigachad wrote:
             | I see it as things returning to how they were. In a small
             | town, the person running the fast food joint often did work
             | there for decades and everyone recognized everyone. Theft
             | was hard to get away with because you don't just blend in
             | to the masses like a modern city. Now tech is allowing us
             | to hold people accountable again.
        
               | kstrauser wrote:
               | I think that's a romanticized memory. While holding
               | people accountable is good, so is eventual forgiveness.
               | If you steal a candy bar from Old Man Smith at the town's
               | only gas station, and he's the kind to hold grudges,
               | you're boned. Never mind teens trying to buy condoms when
               | every cashier in town knows them.
               | 
               | There's a happy medium in there somewhere. You don't want
               | to let repeat offenders off scot free, but there needs to
               | be a cooling off period, too.
        
       | vagabund wrote:
       | As unsurprising as it is absurd if you're familiar with the
       | petulant child that is James Dolan.
        
         | HDThoreaun wrote:
         | Yea I think the bigger issue here is just that Dolan is an
         | oligarch heir piece of shit and we need to rethink how
         | inheritance works. The facial recognition stuff is an issue,
         | but if dolan had to actually work for any of the stuff he's got
         | I think he'd behave very differently.
        
           | Apocryphon wrote:
           | Hey, HN was just talking about him yesterday!
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34057496
        
       | itronitron wrote:
       | This is a service I think some parents would be eager to sign up
       | for, although since the woman kicked out was chaperoning a school
       | field trip it seems like poor judgment on the part of MSG.
        
       | jasmer wrote:
       | Who the hell even thinks to do any of this? Why are people so
       | stupid and petty?
       | 
       | I mean, I'm thankful to live in a place where we are too boring
       | to even think of these kinds of shenanigans. We have our own but
       | they are not as bad.
        
       | vleon42 wrote:
       | I am torn actually unsure on what would be morally correct:
       | 
       | 1. I, as an individual, am allowed to deny entry to persons I
       | dislike from my private property.
       | 
       | 2. I, as an individual, am allowed to deny entry to persons
       | affiliated with a business I dislike from my private property.
       | 
       | 3. I, as a business owner (eg: a restaurant), am allowed to deny
       | entry to persons I dislike (eg: a previous patron who was
       | violent) from my business.
       | 
       | 4. I, as a business owner (eg: a restaurant), should I not be
       | allowed to deny entry to persons affiliated with a business I
       | dislike (eg: the next door restaurant employee who is copying my
       | menu) from my business?
        
         | toiletfuneral wrote:
        
         | HWR_14 wrote:
         | It should be noted that (3) is not true. You cannot deny entry
         | to black people because you are a racist, for instance. You can
         | deny someone who was previously violent, for the violence. Not
         | because you dislike them.
         | 
         | This is similar to
         | 
         | 5. I, as a government, can lock up people who engage in
         | behaviors I dislike (e.g. because they were violent.)
         | 
         | 6. I, as a government, can lock up people who are affiliated
         | with groups I dislike (e.g. political groups not in power)
        
         | xapata wrote:
         | The difference is the scale of the Madison Square Gardens
         | business. You could argue that they have a sort of monopoly
         | power that holds them to a different standard than the typical
         | business.
        
         | HD103720b wrote:
         | To me its pretty straight forward because this is how social
         | credit systems start.
         | 
         | This is a slippery slope.
         | 
         | Facial recognition matched with digital currencies is a real
         | serious problem.
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | In terms of morality (as opposed to current law), I would argue
         | #1 and #2 should be legally permitted, while #3 is inconsistent
         | and #4 should not be permitted.
         | 
         | Basically, as an _individual_ regarding your _private property_
         | you have total control to discriminate freely. That 's
         | individual freedom. You're allowed to choose your own guests.
         | (Note that if you're renting a room though, that becomes a
         | business, so this no longer applies.)
         | 
         | Regarding #3, as a business owner, it's necessary to create
         | policies to be able to ban _individuals_ based on their
         | _relevant reasons_ that is set as _policy_ , which includes
         | past demonstrated misbehavior (e.g. violence). But not because
         | you "dislike" them. Feelings don't matter, only relevant (non-
         | arbitrary) policies do.
         | 
         | Similarly for #4, again feelings don't matter. No, a business
         | should not be able to discriminate against people who work for
         | or own competitors. (You can ban taking photos however, since
         | that applies to everyone.)
         | 
         | Basically this is all predicated on a slippery-slope argument
         | -- as soon as you allow bans for arbitrary "dislikes" rather
         | than "relevant reasons", you're opening it up to racism,
         | sexism, homophobia, etc. That's the immoral part. People's
         | desire for equal accomodation from a business strongly
         | outweighs a business owner's "dislikes", especially as a
         | business owner is often the exclusive one providing a certain
         | good in a certain area.
         | 
         | And so this case, I would strongly argue that banning employees
         | of a law firm which is suing you from purchasing entertainment
         | tickets is immoral. It's ultimately no different from a
         | Democrat-owned business banning Republicans. It's nothing more
         | than a "dislike".
        
           | JackFr wrote:
           | Dislike has nothing to do with it.
           | 
           | You're suing my restaurant because you claim a patron of mine
           | was over served by a bartender and subsequently killed
           | someone while driving drunk.
           | 
           | I do not want your lawyers or their investigators or staff
           | coming in and chatting with my staff or poking around my
           | business without my lawyer being there.
        
             | gwbas1c wrote:
             | > I do not want your lawyers or their investigators or
             | staff coming in and chatting with my staff or poking around
             | my business without my lawyer being there.
             | 
             | Which was not the case here. You can not summary ban every
             | employee of a large company that's doing something you
             | don't like.
             | 
             | Kelly Conlon is not involved in the case against MSG, and
             | (as far as I understand) had no knowledge of the case.
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | > _You can not summary ban every employee of a large
               | company that 's doing something you don't like._
               | 
               | Which laws forbid this?
        
             | crazygringo wrote:
             | Then tell your staff not to chat and not let anybody poke
             | around. The lawyers may order food but not walk into the
             | kitchen, just like literally every other customer.
             | 
             | Frankly if you're running a public business then I don't
             | care if you don't want lawyers there, the same as I don't
             | care if you don't want people of another race there. If
             | people are coming to eat and they're not being disruptive,
             | then serve them, end of story. It's not your private home,
             | it's a business open to the public.
        
         | nashashmi wrote:
         | No, you should not be allowed as a business to deny entry, or
         | deny service, or deny product to a person/entity you do not
         | "like" or a person who is associated with someone/entity you do
         | not "like".
         | 
         | If you removed a person from your business because of something
         | they did, then denying them subsequent business is an extreme
         | measure and will most likely not hold unless there is language
         | in laws that you can use, like violent activity, criminal
         | behavior, etc.
        
         | 0xdeadbeefbabe wrote:
         | 5. Block people who are likely to have a medical emergency at
         | your business.
        
         | advisedwang wrote:
         | Your totally ignore the key element here: a new technology is
         | allowing denying entry at a whole new scale. Nobody really has
         | an objection to organization blocking a single individual who
         | is might cause trouble. But blocking an entire class of people
         | is a) newly enabled* and b) much more harmful to society.
         | 
         | If a venue kicked out a lawyer who was actively working on a
         | lawsuit against the venue, nobody would bat an eye. But kicking
         | out every person on payroll at any firm that has a lawsuit
         | against any venue in the parent company, the scale has now
         | transformed this into a different thing.
         | 
         | The next step people worry about is that this same technology
         | could be applied to more than just busniess you dislike. Why
         | not block people who have disparaged your business on social
         | media? Why not block people with poor credit scores or a
         | criminal history?
         | 
         | So you could draw a line between (3) and (4), but you should
         | also be adding
         | 
         | 5. I, as a business owner, should I not be allowed to invent
         | new ways to deny entry to entire categories of people.
         | 
         | * obviously blocking people on visual characteristics like skin
         | color is already possible. And that is widely regarded as
         | unacceptable!
        
           | hnuser847 wrote:
           | > Your totally ignore the key element here: a new technology
           | is allowing denying entry at a whole new scale. Nobody really
           | has an objection to organization blocking a single individual
           | who is might cause trouble. But blocking an entire class of
           | people is a) newly enabled* and b) much more harmful to
           | society.
           | 
           | So you're okay with the principle of denying individuals
           | entry to a private business, but you're NOT okay with
           | businesses enforcing this with technology? How does that make
           | any sense?
        
             | BizarroLand wrote:
             | You missed the point.
             | 
             | They're okay with the principle, AND they're okay with the
             | technology, what they're NOT okay with is using the
             | technology to microneedle and retaliate against
             | tangentially innocent people.
             | 
             | The technology didn't decide to single the lawyer out, some
             | manager or legal person did. It's not the tech that is
             | wrong, it's the people's use of it.
        
               | pixl97 wrote:
               | eh, kind of both.
               | 
               | When you invent a hammer someone is going to use it to
               | hit someone else over the head with it. It is an
               | unavoidable foregone conclusion. Now, instead of a hammer
               | in which society thinks they are useful and that anyone
               | should have one, lets look at more controversial things
               | like guns. In the US we tend to think everyone should
               | have one, other countries tend to think the opposite, and
               | are crime statistics reflect that.
               | 
               | And I would hold the same is true when it comes to
               | 'business crimes'. The US will likely uphold that
               | businesses can use advanced technology against the
               | general public, and countries in the EU will more than
               | likely prevent businesses from discriminating with it.
               | 
               | There is a reason we have laws regarding technologies.
               | People will abuse them and the law is there to punish
               | those who are abusers.
        
             | slingnow wrote:
             | Rephrased:
             | 
             | So you're OK with countries using guns to conduct warfare,
             | but you're NOT okay with countries using nuclear weapons?
             | How does that make any sense?
             | 
             | Hopefully you can see the difference.
        
             | advisedwang wrote:
             | I'm saying there's a difference between blocking 10 people
             | and 10,000, or 1 million. And I'm saying that technological
             | change allows the latter, and we need to be cognizant of
             | that when we decide what we're going to accept in society.
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | But I think the parents 4 questions are still an
               | appropriate starting point for productive discussion. Are
               | these rights that an individual or organization has?
               | Technology is secondary.
               | 
               | If your answer is yes to all 4 is yes, the answer to 5 is
               | also yes.
               | 
               | If your no or conditional to some of them, then you can
               | discuss where the line should be drawn (e.g. numbers,
               | characteristics, or technology allowed)
        
             | TheCapn wrote:
             | I kinda get what he's saying and there isn't an easy
             | answer. Things done bit by bit are often different than
             | things done at large scale. Especially when automated by
             | tech taking out the individual human element. The nuance
             | between people making informed decisions vs algorithms
             | dictating action off generalized heuristics can get muddy.
             | 
             | Just think of anonymized user data. Individually that info
             | isn't really all that important, but taken at massive scale
             | it can lead to worrying trends. Consider something like the
             | Cambridge Analytica scandal.
        
               | wombatpm wrote:
               | 10 deaths are a tragedy.
               | 
               | 1,000,000 deaths are a statistic
        
             | matt123456789 wrote:
             | The two ideas are not incompatible. Consider that it's much
             | easier to drag and drop a list of faceless names and
             | categories into a "Deny" list on a GUI, than it is to argue
             | to a mother's face that she cannot attend an even with her
             | daughter's Girl Scout troop because she happens to work at
             | the same firm as some opposing lawyers. There is, or was, a
             | higher cost associated to this action. Denying people
             | access was OK back when you had to _really care_ about it.
             | The easier it gets, the more likely you are to exclude
             | people that it just _sounds_ like a good idea to exclude.
             | The issue, of course, is that this leads to a world where
             | your child gets excluded from playgrounds and theme parks
             | because you had the wrong opinion on the Internet back in
             | your 20s. Maybe you were too woke, or maybe you weren't
             | woke enough. We'd all be happy to forget about it after a
             | few years, except that facial recognition databases won't
             | let you forget about it until the day you and all your
             | progeny have died.
        
           | MisterBastahrd wrote:
           | But he isn't, though?
           | 
           | If I do not want X at my establishment, then what does it
           | matter whether X is picked out of a single file line by a
           | bouncer or picked out of a crowd by a security camera? I
           | don't want them there. In what manner they showed up is
           | irrelevant to me.
           | 
           | And you're comparing apples and oranges. This is a specific
           | person who is a lawyer for a firm which is actively working
           | against MSG, not some nebulous class of individual.
        
             | FateOfNations wrote:
             | > This is a specific person who is a lawyer for a firm
             | which is actively working against MSG
             | 
             | Has there been allegations that the firm or its
             | partners/employees have acted maliciously with respect to
             | MSG, or are they just representing a client within the
             | standard scope of practice for the legal profession?
        
           | theLiminator wrote:
           | Imo it's fine if they can explain why and they're not
           | discriminating against a protected class (or one that should
           | morally be protected).
           | 
           | Obviously this woman should get her money back, and imo they
           | should comp her for the pain/expense related to arranging her
           | schedule/travel/lodging around this show since she wasn't
           | denied at point of sale.
        
           | baandang wrote:
           | I just picture someone worrying about people dialing phone
           | numbers while driving in the car in 1990? What a stupid thing
           | to worry about since obviously the cord won't be long enough.
           | 
           | People aren't going to want to have a phone on them at all
           | times anyway and risk possibly breaking or losing the phone.
           | It will just hang on the wall like the rotary phone in a
           | stand so you know where it is but you won't have to worry
           | about the pesky cord anymore.
           | 
           | Technological progress is a linear process that is always
           | good with zero higher order cultural effects based on how new
           | features are used in practice.
           | 
           | Face recognition? What could possibly go wrong. I recognize
           | faces literally every day!
        
             | pixl97 wrote:
             | While I'm not sure of the historical accuracy of the
             | following article, well, many people should have realized
             | that by the 90s.
             | 
             | https://thenewswheel.com/history-of-the-car-phone/
        
           | scintill76 wrote:
           | Reminiscent of how things like license plate readers are
           | legal, but maybe only because the legislators didn't imagine
           | a day when every person could be surveilled constantly,
           | retroactively, everywhere.
        
           | xwdv wrote:
           | It has not transformed into a different thing. It is the same
           | thing it was before. A person can deny someone access to
           | their private property. The law is not "A person can deny
           | people access to their private property but only in slow
           | inefficient ways..."
           | 
           | What if it was an inverse, say you could only enter a
           | business if you are a member of X group? Now most of the
           | planet is banned from your property except a small group of
           | people that qualify for X, where X could be as specific as
           | "straight white males".
           | 
           | It seems to me, some people just want the _idea_ of the law
           | but not the enforcement of it. Probably for their own self
           | interests, mainly: getting access to someone else's cool
           | private property.
        
             | michaelmrose wrote:
             | You can't be against cancel culture but for all the tools
             | that allow its implementation.
             | 
             | In most civilized countries including the US you couldn't
             | put up a sign that said straight white males only. In the
             | US you cannot discriminate based on protected classes
             | including not not limited to Race, Religious belief,
             | National origin, Age, Sex.
             | 
             | Ability to recognize and ban people at scale is absolutely
             | a game changer whether you want to acknowledge it or not.
             | It is not remotely "the same thing" because it allows
             | previously impossible consequences and failure modes. You
             | are thinking too small if you are considering only this
             | silly show. This kind of feature is in many cases in theory
             | commendable and logical but equally problematic.
             | 
             | Consider shoplifters an odious bunch if there ever was one.
             | Were I a shopkeeper I would certainly want to keep a fellow
             | that ran out with some goods from coming back and its only
             | friendly to share such a naughty list with my fellows.
             | Steal from one and find yourself unwanted all over town.
             | What could go wrong?
             | 
             | What if I DID pay for the goods but I was incorrectly
             | flagged? For instance came back in with my just paid for
             | goods to get something I forgot and went out a different
             | exit.
             | 
             | What if said flagged person now cannot reasonably obtain
             | food or other critical resources? For instance more than a
             | few private enterprise operate public transit resources and
             | a huge portion of the US has exactly one ISP. For instance
             | I work for one ISP and utilize another. If they banned
             | people who work for the competition I would literally have
             | to move.
             | 
             | What if the person did wrong 10 years ago and has turned
             | their life around since? Computers never forget and
             | communicate across jurisdictions.
             | 
             | What if flagging is used not to punish actual criminals but
             | merely those we disagree with politically?
             | 
             | What if its used to punish those who write negative reviews
             | or do too many returns. Statistically if our supply chain
             | has a certain amount of broken trash and we serve millions
             | of people a certain number are going to get a much higher
             | than average number of broken things or have more than
             | average bad experiences.
             | 
             | I for one have seen both return fraud and plenty of people
             | who cause their own problems and then complain endlessly.
             | Were I to operate a business I would kill for a way to
             | eliminate such worthless customers. What about the
             | collateral damage of those legitimately wronged?
             | 
             | Looking at your profile you complain about "cancel culture"
             | but seem oblivious to the fact that cancellation is
             | implemented either directly as a million decisions about
             | one's own personal property OR preemptively based on
             | vendors who are acting to protect themselves from those
             | same decisions. What you are arguing for is the method for
             | cancel culture to explode in the public sphere.
             | 
             | Do you really want to worry about writing an honest
             | negative review, being mistaken for someone else, saying
             | something controversial on the internet, revealing yourself
             | as part of a group disliked by some, or subject to a
             | database error and find yourself banned all over town? Do
             | you want to talk to a drone who tells you the computer told
             | him you can't come in and he can't fix it but you can talk
             | to his equally useless manager who will tell you the same
             | thing?
             | 
             | Here's a laugh for you. Lets suppose I took your comment
             | wrong and decided your bit about straight white males was
             | an indication of homophobia. I make no such implication
             | herein but suppose I did and added you to a bigot list that
             | was ultimately picked up not by a single bad list but a web
             | of bad lists as maintained by multiple people who pick up
             | and push their lists to other more pervasive lists like
             | adblock lists.
             | 
             | You find shortly that you can neither buy a loaf of bread
             | nor get a sandwich down the street from your house anymore
             | because we have collectively decided that our "cool private
             | property" is not for you. You find a way to get off one
             | list 3 steps removed from the genesis of your discontent
             | but are re-added later courtesy of a different list. Nobody
             | will tell you why you are on their list nor even if you are
             | they just tell you that you aren't welcome. You spend the
             | next 5 years chasing ghosts never figuring out that a
             | single post on hacker news is why you can't get that job
             | you wanted.
             | 
             | Again you can't be against cancel culture but for all the
             | tools that allow its implementation.
        
           | briffle wrote:
           | I can't help but wonder how they got the pictures of all the
           | employees from this law firm? Perhaps headshots on the 'about
           | us' section of the web site? I can't wait to see yet more
           | legal disclaimers added to everything...
        
             | teepo wrote:
             | My guess is they used something like LinkedIN Sales
             | Navigator to feed the MSG "no fly" list.
        
           | vleon42 wrote:
           | Thanks, makes a lot of sense
        
           | stickfigure wrote:
           | Who cares what technology they use? They could also check ids
           | at the door and cross-reference their naughty list.
           | Everything seems to involve an id check these days.
           | 
           | Maybe there's some contractual issue here - they sold you a
           | ticket, that establishes a contract, they're breaking the
           | contract by denying you entry. They should have performed the
           | naughty check earlier in the process?
           | 
           | I think it's all pretty stupid but occupation isn't a
           | protected class.
        
             | advisedwang wrote:
             | It matters because of scale. Our current laws and social
             | norms are based on a world where it's not feasible to check
             | against a list of 1,000,000 disallowed people. Technology
             | now allows this, and we should re-assess whether our laws
             | and norms should change with this new reality.
             | 
             | Obviously I think we should add some new checks. Perhaps
             | every blocklist should be transparent and have an appeals
             | process. Or maybe blacklisting should be time-limited. Or
             | maybe expand the list of protected classes.
        
             | chucksmash wrote:
             | > Who cares what technology they use?
             | 
             | As you say, they could accomplish the same thing by
             | checking IDs at the door. Given the choice, I'd personally
             | prefer an explicit ID check that I know is happening and is
             | inconvenient for everybody rather than one that leaves me
             | oblivious to the fact I'm being tracked and researched.
        
             | thih9 wrote:
             | > They could also check ids at the door and cross-reference
             | their naughty list.
             | 
             | They couldn't, it seems impractical for an event of that
             | scale.
             | 
             | Plus, it's easier to bypass a door check or even convince
             | the person doing the check to let you in.
        
               | xyzzyz wrote:
               | This is in fact more practical than setting up face
               | detection system, all you need to do is ID scanner and
               | some simple OCR system to cross check the name on ID
               | against blacklist, each person entering slaps ID against
               | scanners (similar to how you do it with boarding passes
               | at the airport or with public transit passes at gates),
               | after one second either red or green light flashes.
               | Shouldn't take more than 5 seconds per person.
        
               | strix_varius wrote:
               | Here's how we know this isn't true: they evaluated how to
               | do this at scale, chose facial recognition, and then
               | implemented it successfully in a 6,000 person stadium.
        
               | bonzini wrote:
               | Not because it's impractical to check IDs, but because
               | facial recognition is less explicit and thus more easily
               | "normalized".
        
             | theironhammer wrote:
        
             | lovich wrote:
             | >Who cares what technology they use?
             | 
             | A quantitative difference can create a qualitative
             | difference. See all the discussions around cops tailing
             | people in public when the laws were set during a time where
             | that involved an actual officer following them the entire
             | time, vs tossing a $20 dollar gps module on their car and
             | being able to track the person at will
        
             | hnlmorg wrote:
             | Agreed. For me, the issue is that this restriction is
             | upheld at point of entry and not point of sale.
             | 
             | I get it's a harder problem to restrict who tickets are
             | sold to, but if a venue like that wants to get petty about
             | who can attend their shows then the responsibility is on
             | them to communicate that before the event.
             | 
             | To flip this another way, in any other normal circumstance,
             | when you get banned from a venue you'd get a very clear
             | communication telling you so. There is no ambiguity, you
             | know you're banned. Yet here the venue is still happy to
             | take peoples money but doesn't want to admit them. They're
             | basically having the best of both worlds.
        
               | teepo wrote:
               | A theater ticket is not like booking with an airline. The
               | venue doesn't assign a validated name to each seat. In
               | this case it was likely one name for the entire batch of
               | tickets in their group.
        
               | monksy wrote:
               | They're sold as non-refundable.* (Non-refundable by the
               | buyer's request.. yes you can kind of take it to the
               | resell market.. but now that's being invaded by the
               | people who sold the ticket)
        
               | baandang wrote:
               | Yea how stupid.
               | 
               | Everyone in this thread has already recognized how many
               | faces so far today with their eyes and nothing blew up?
               | 
               | Look at the personal computer? It is just a better place
               | to hold your recipes. We basically live in 1980 + having
               | a more efficient way to hold your cookie recipes instead
               | of in cumbersome recipe books.
        
               | BlueTemplar wrote:
               | It's not that simple. Scale and ease of use matters. That
               | is why when the government attempted to cross-reference
               | the various administrative (mostly paper) files in a
               | single database, around a single social security number,
               | using a computer, it caused a huge scandal, the project
               | was abandoned, and an independent regulatory agency was
               | created in order to prevent something like this from
               | happening again (and also deal with other data privacy
               | issues).
        
               | alwa wrote:
               | To be fair, in the article, the venue management claims
               | to have told the law firms involved about the ban well
               | ahead of time:
               | 
               | "All impacted attorneys were notified of the policy,
               | including Davis, Saperstein and Salomon, which was
               | notified twice," a spokesperson for MSG Entertainment
               | said in a statement.
               | 
               | Whether or not that notice was in fact adequate, it seems
               | like they're at least sensitive to giving the impression
               | that they communicated the ban very clearly ahead of
               | time.
        
               | tedunangst wrote:
               | I'm not sure why everyone is assuming she was denied a
               | refund.
        
               | pixl97 wrote:
               | Well, I'm sure she was refunded or that would be another
               | part of the suit.
               | 
               | Now, look at these 2 situations.
               | 
               | "Hello, I see you are buying this ticket, but since we're
               | not going to let you enter we will prevent you from
               | buying it"
               | 
               | is much different from.
               | 
               | "Hello, I see you got a baby sitter and took an uber to
               | come down here and now we're refusing you access to a
               | place you had a ticket for, on a reason you could not
               | have possibly predicted"
               | 
               | There is an accrual of many other costs on the second one
               | that are not refunded.
        
               | briffle wrote:
               | Of course, there is also the fact she entered as a group
               | (girl scouts) and most likely was not the purchaser. To
               | get group rates, many venues make you purchase all the
               | tickets by one person.
        
               | engineer_22 wrote:
               | > we're refusing you access to a place you had a ticket
               | for, on a reason you could not have possibly predicted"
               | 
               | MSG claims to have notified the company twice.
        
               | nulbyte wrote:
               | Given the power imbalance here, I'm inclined to side with
               | the individual refused entry. MSG can claim whatever they
               | like. They refused access to an event open to the public
               | to someone who was apparently unaware of their policy. It
               | could easily have been that MSG communicated their intent
               | poorly or not at all. It could also be that the law firm
               | ignored them.
               | 
               | What MSG did was petty and doesn't make only them look
               | bad. Given how iconic they are, to me, they make New York
               | City look bad.
               | 
               | I'm not sure I'd ever want to visit MSG. I work for a
               | well known subsidiary of a well know NYC-based company.
               | Who knows, maybe I'll be on the list one day! I see
               | something like this in the news and think I'm not missing
               | much having never been to NYC. Clearly, MSG hasn't
               | thought through the optics of this. Or, if they did, they
               | think they're too big to need to care. I hope they have
               | another think coming.
        
               | wanderer2323 wrote:
               | They won't be able to refund her missing out on spending
               | time with her kid.
        
           | ejb999 wrote:
           | >>Your totally ignore the key element here: a new technology
           | is allowing denying entry at a whole new scale
           | 
           | I actually don't see that as the key element at all - Doing
           | something that is already legal, faster, doesn't make it
           | illegal does it?
        
             | BlueTemplar wrote:
             | Why wouldn't it ? Speeding tickets being an obvious
             | example.
             | 
             | The 1974 SAFARI scandal seems to be quite relevant here too
             | :
             | 
             | https://www-lemonde-
             | fr.translate.goog/blog/bugbrother/2010/1...
        
         | himinlomax wrote:
         | Another take: personal information is valuable, it belongs to
         | the individual concerned with some fair use exceptions, making
         | electronic files with said personal information in a way that
         | obviously harms the individuals concerned infringes on their
         | most personal intellectual property and is not fair use.
        
           | rtkwe wrote:
           | Facts however are not generally protected though which is
           | what most of this is about. That's why map makers include
           | non-existent cities so there's something other than just
           | facts involved in their product.
        
             | himinlomax wrote:
             | Depends on the jurisdiction. Facts that happen to be
             | personal information are very much protected in the EU.
        
         | cortesoft wrote:
         | In the US, at least, there are restrictions on 3. You can't
         | deny entry to black people, for example, just because you don't
         | like black people.
        
           | btilly wrote:
           | The restrictions in question come from the Civil Rights Act.
           | Which sets a bunch of protected classes, including race,
           | color, religion, sex and national origin.
           | 
           | See https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-
           | act-196....
           | 
           | However federal law does not prevent discriminating on other
           | grounds. Such as political affiliation or profession. For
           | example landlords can choose not to rent to lawyers, and
           | every so often someone gets fired for political views.
           | 
           | State law may disagree. And her liquor license trick is an
           | example of how.
        
             | ejb999 wrote:
             | >>However federal law does not prevent discriminating on
             | other grounds. Such as political affiliation or profession.
             | For example landlords can choose not to rent to lawyers,
             | and every so often someone gets fired for political views.
             | 
             | I know more than a few MD's that refuse to see lawyers as
             | patients - can't say I blame them.
        
           | HarryHirsch wrote:
           | You can, however, deny employment to Dalits, and Oracle
           | argues that it's Just Fine because there's no law.
        
             | rootusrootus wrote:
             | How is that not an obvious protected class? It should
             | easily fall under the national origin qualifications.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | > It should easily fall under the national origin
               | qualifications.
               | 
               | How? Dalits aren't from Dalitland.
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | > _How is that not an obvious protected class?_
               | 
               | Basically because it wasn't on the radar of American
               | legislators when they wrote up the lists of protected
               | classes.
        
               | btilly wrote:
               | I would think race fits better.
               | 
               | But we'll just have to watch cases like
               | https://thewire.in/caste/cisco-case-caste-discrimination-
               | sil... to see whether the courts agree with us that caste
               | discrimination should be illegal in America. (And if the
               | courts disagree, time to lobby the politicians...)
        
               | BlueTemplar wrote:
               | A reminder : still using "race" like it's still the 18th
               | century (up to the 1950s?) and like it's still a valid
               | scientific concept effectively makes the US government a
               | promoter of racism :
               | 
               | https://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Content.asp
               | x?I...
               | 
               | The postmodern term is "ethnicity" (which does get
               | mentioned in your article), with the understanding that
               | it's overwhelmingly about culture, and while genetics do
               | matter in very specific cases (like for lactose
               | tolerance), typically they matter very little, and your
               | ethnicity is something that you can _change_ (though it
               | gets ever harder after your teenage years).
               | 
               | P.S.: I really don't know enough about "caste" and its
               | history to comment on that, though the ancestry issue
               | doesn't look good.
               | 
               | (One thing that has been bugging me for a while is how
               | the number of our ancestors grows exponentially with each
               | generation - at least before inbreeding starts to
               | dominate - which seems like any of those ancestry-based
               | discriminations are just arbitrarily stopping at some
               | convenient for them point/in complete coverage, and can
               | basically make up excuses about discriminating against
               | you or not. But I guess that I shouldn't be surprised
               | about it when totalitarian regimes do it : the fear of
               | the arbitrary is a powerful weapon they have, and so it's
               | likely on purpose !)
        
         | josephcsible wrote:
         | IMO, your right to deny people entry to your private property
         | should end once you take their money for tickets to enter.
         | After all, it's not like she bought her ticket under a fake
         | name.
        
           | TheJoeMan wrote:
           | This is an important distinction with "deny access to
           | business". They already took her money, now they're denying
           | their end of the contract.
        
           | s1artibartfast wrote:
           | What if you didn't take their money and they bought a ticket
           | via 3rd party, as is often the case?
        
             | josephcsible wrote:
             | Then you should have required the 3rd party to provide a
             | list of names at the time of purchase.
        
         | KptMarchewa wrote:
         | Change "dislike" to "actively works against you".
        
           | pixl97 wrote:
           | Eh, I take that as a very bad take.
           | 
           | Lawyers work for their clients, and in the vast majority of
           | cases are not personally invested deeply in the case (except
           | when you do dumb crap like in the article). They request
           | evidence via the court, they do not go gather it themselves.
           | If further on site evidence is needed by non-standard methods
           | a PI will show up at the location, and if they are any good
           | will never be noticed. By banning the lawyers they are either
           | petty, or they feel they are still involved in some kind of
           | potentially illegal activity and need to reduce risk. Not a
           | good look.
        
           | TomK32 wrote:
           | But, even if she did work on cases again the company, would
           | attending an event have to do anything with the court
           | disputes?
        
         | guerrilla wrote:
         | This is less of a problem if when public places aren't private
         | property, but we still have the second part of the problem: can
         | one be forced to do business with someone one doesn't want to.
         | It seems like in this case, she was already sold a ticket, so
         | that seems to be a moot point on this particular case.
        
         | tootie wrote:
         | Honestly I think the biggest free speech issue is their grounds
         | for excluding her. And perhaps a violation of the 4th amendment
         | too. Not because of cataloging her face but by abusing their
         | authority to retaliate against people for exercising due
         | process. What if law firms struggle to hire for fear of being
         | blacklisted for indirectly participating in lawsuits? It will
         | make it that much harder to seek redress in courts.
        
         | throwaway5752 wrote:
         | Your premise is a little off. This is not exactly private
         | property, but a public accommodation (https://en.wikipedia.org/
         | wiki/Public_accommodations_in_the_U.... That is why MSG likely
         | has to meet ADA accessibility construction standards, among
         | other things. Different laws apply when you invite the general
         | public into your property.
         | 
         | The law is like code. If you say, "persons I dislike" but you
         | mean people of color, you have Jim Crow, which is deeply
         | immoral. On they other hand, your point #3 is clearly valid. To
         | resolve this, 42 U.S.C. SS2000a talks about protected classes
         | (https://www.justice.gov/crt/title-ii-civil-rights-act-
         | public...). People with good and bad intentions have been
         | arguing ever since then about what is a public accommodation
         | and who belongs to protected classes. In this case, even if
         | it's legal, MSG is not being terribly smart to 1) use dystopian
         | technology to enforce bans 2) be petty and expansive about
         | banning people 3) do so against a now-very-angry legal expert.
        
         | worik wrote:
         | > 1. I, as an individual, am allowed to deny entry to persons I
         | dislike from my private property.
         | 
         | If you were not letting other, strangers, in for money. (Unsure
         | if "for money" matters) then you are not, or should not, be so
         | allowed.
         | 
         | If you are in trade than (in civilised jurisdictions) you
         | cannot refuse to trade with a person because of prejudice
         | and/or bigotry.
        
         | throw_a_grenade wrote:
         | They shouldn't have taken legal obligations to do otherwise,
         | i.e. they shouldn't have sold the ticket and shouldn't have
         | applied for liquor permit.
         | 
         | "Yes, we took your cash in return for promise of delivering
         | goods and services, but our policy forbids us from delivering"
         | sounds more like Rule of Acquisition.
        
           | rtkwe wrote:
           | Given she was there with a Girl Scouts troop she probably
           | hadn't given her name to MSG and the tickets were probably
           | bought as a large group. Also do we know if they refunded the
           | ticket I don't remember seeing that said either way when I
           | read it.
        
             | throw_a_grenade wrote:
             | Tough shit. People can resell things they own, like for
             | example tickets, so assuming she and her daughter obtained
             | tickets legally (directly or indirectly, I have no reason
             | to doubt they did, though I don't know for sure), by that
             | act she was already given explicit permission to enter the
             | venue and remain there for the duration of event.
             | 
             | If they don't like it, they can sell named tickets, and BTW
             | since Girl Scouts are known for being vicious hooligans,
             | maybe they should have instituted football-like regime up
             | to and including stadium bans for their mothers.
        
         | rapht wrote:
         | Your private property is what it is, private.
         | 
         | Your business place, assuming a public business, is indeed
         | that: a place open to the public by default.
         | 
         | In France (and, as far as I'm aware, most European countries),
         | there is a very clear line: either your business place welcomes
         | the general public, or it does not.
         | 
         | Once you fall in the first category - and, as soon as you're
         | selling something in that business place, you are in that
         | category - then you must have very strong arguments if you
         | refuse to let a prospective customer in or even if you refuse
         | to sell to a particular person the products or services that it
         | is the purpose of your business to sell.
         | 
         | Those arguments usually boil down to either (i) some law
         | preventing you to sell something to that prospective customer
         | or (ii) that prospective customer actively disturbing the
         | public order or presenting a high risk thereof (eg: they're a
         | thief, they're drunk, they can't prove that they will be able
         | to pay, ...). Of course there are provisions for specific
         | settings, but which merely soften the (ii) to allow filtering
         | on public safety grounds for places welcoming more than X
         | simultaneous guests - including eg nightclubs and such.
         | 
         | Anything not in falling into these exceptions is just what it
         | is: discrimination. And actually, this seems very sound to me.
         | The fact you own a business puts you in the public world: you
         | may not refuse to serve someone because you don't like them.
        
         | dehrmann wrote:
         | The less dramatic version of 2 is a bouncer saying "no, you're
         | friends with Bob, and Bob always causes trouble."
        
           | CaptainZapp wrote:
           | Except that you're not standing in the queue to be processed
           | by the bouncer, but you have a valid ticket, which they sold
           | to you.
        
             | Zak wrote:
             | Venues should be required to refund tickets if a person is
             | denied entry provided they weren't previously told they
             | were banned from the venue.
        
               | josephcsible wrote:
               | If you buy a ticket, you can't just unilaterally decide
               | that you don't feel like going after all and get a
               | refund. Why should the seller get to do the equivalent?
        
               | JackFr wrote:
               | The law firm were notified prior (2x) that employees
               | would not be allowed entry to MSG. Having been so warned,
               | she bought a ticket and tried to go.
               | 
               | After having been warned and then being prevented from
               | going in, her response is to sue them again.
        
               | duped wrote:
               | It wasn't entry to MSG, but entry to radio city music
               | hall which is owned by MSG. It's not clear how obvious
               | the warning was.
        
               | Zak wrote:
               | I don't think notifying her firm is good enough. She
               | should have to be notified individually, directly, and
               | provably for them to get out of refunding the ticket.
        
         | tqi wrote:
         | I think if a business is the beneficiary of a number of public
         | subsidizes and allowances, then they lose a lot of that
         | discretion.
        
         | reaperducer wrote:
         | _I, as a business owner (eg: a restaurant), am allowed to deny
         | entry to persons I dislike (eg: a previous patron who was
         | violent) from my business._
         | 
         | Actually, no. At least in New York State. While you can ban
         | someone for the "violent" offense you picked, you cannot "deny
         | entry to persons [you] dislike."
         | 
         | The victim in this case, being a lawyer, is taking the clever
         | and lawyerly route with this:
         | 
         |  _Davis is now upping the legal ante, challenging MSG's license
         | with the State Liquor Authority.
         | 
         | "The liquor license that MSG got requires them to admit members
         | of the public, unless there are people who would be disruptive
         | who constitute a security threat," said Davis._
        
           | DaveExeter wrote:
           | >you cannot "deny entry to persons [you] dislike."
           | 
           | I think that's 100% legal, even in NYS. You can't deny entry
           | based upon membership in a protected class, but other than
           | that, you can't be forced to serve someone!
        
             | einherjae wrote:
             | Apparently you do, if the liquor license you agreed to
             | requires it.
        
           | rootusrootus wrote:
           | > being a lawyer
           | 
           | That's the thing that gets me. I get the desire to retaliate
           | against people you feel have wronged you somehow, but as an
           | actual strategy it seems like playing games like this with
           | lawyers invites more trouble than it's worth. If they're
           | trying to collect evidence, they will just send in an
           | uninvolved third party to do it, not go themselves. But by
           | attacking them personally, now they're going to use their
           | legal skills to give you a headache.
        
             | 8note wrote:
             | Which is pretty unfavourable for the world.
             | 
             | Any other occupation isn't allowed to use their occupation
             | to retaliate
        
               | reaperducer wrote:
               | _Any other occupation isn 't allowed to use their
               | occupation to retaliate_
               | 
               | Sure they do. It happens all the time. Politicians do it.
               | Food service workers. Tradesmen.
               | 
               | One place I worked pissed of a local plumber's union, and
               | guess what -- a week later the city condemned the sewer
               | pipe leaving the building. Once we made up with the
               | union, the city magically changed its mind.
        
               | Pigalowda wrote:
               | She's not illegally "retaliating". MSG wants to ban her
               | so they must forfeit the liquor license. She is pointing
               | out the rules of a license that MSG is violating. What's
               | wrong with that? MSG could forfeit it and keep her banned
               | and all is square.
        
               | pavon wrote:
               | If the liquor license really limits who can be denied
               | service, then I don't consider this to be retaliation.
               | 
               | By analogy, if a lawyer is denied entry because they are
               | black and they sue, that isn't retaliation it is just
               | requiring the business to follow the law. If a lawyer is
               | denied entry for some legitimate reason (say drunk and
               | belligerent), and they dig up some other unrelated
               | offense to sue about (while ignoring the hundreds of
               | other establishments with the same minor offense), then
               | that is retaliation.
        
         | kstrauser wrote:
         | #4 could (and almost certainly would) be used for broadly awful
         | reasons. For example, "I'm not discriminating against
         | minorities! I just don't want to serve anyone who's worked in a
         | chicken processing plant."
        
       | Waterluvian wrote:
       | With the merge being approved, there were now only four
       | Corporations. Sure, there were many off-world Corps, but they
       | didn't have any meaningful affiliations and were really just a
       | novelty for Roamers. Everyone, from birth, was employed by a
       | Corp. Mind you, employment doesn't endow a title, salary,
       | benefits, or duties. It just meant you were permitted access the
       | various amenities it provided: transportation, tech, telcoms,
       | housing, food, water, and of course, a social access permit.
       | 
       | Corps are a lot like the "Sponsored Nation" concept from the
       | 2300s, but without the discrete geographical boundaries. This
       | makes it, by design, as some argue, too easy to find one's self
       | in violation of Corporate policies. Usually someone makes a wrong
       | turn or enters the wrong door and winds up in front of an
       | Adjudicator.
       | 
       | Since the merger, however, enforcement of overlooked policies has
       | been on the rise. Given the complexities of the merge conditions,
       | it became very difficult to remember who was employed by whom,
       | which inevitably led to misassociation with non-colleagues. What
       | used to be a social faux pas, paid for with a sheepish smile,
       | would now find you among the Unemployed.
        
         | gabythenerd wrote:
         | Sounds like the worldbuilding behind Cyberpunk 2077, it has
         | major corpos and finding yourself among the unemployed leaves
         | you in very bad shape.
        
         | rocketbop wrote:
         | William Gibson?
        
           | Waterluvian wrote:
           | Just "inspired" by the article and the potential implications
           | of companies buying companies and finding yourself no-longer
           | permitted in some establishment.
        
       | Moto7451 wrote:
       | Yesterday's Dolan Family Drama:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34044818#34060122
        
       | plusminusplus wrote:
       | _" we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an
       | inherently adverse environment"_
       | 
       | For discussion, let's take MSG's statement in good faith, and
       | assume the attorney _was_ notified twice.
       | 
       | Are there legitimate reasons to do this other than a "pretext for
       | doing collective punishment on adversaries who would dare sue
       | MSG" as suggested?
        
         | ezfe wrote:
         | I mean, I think it's standard operating procedure not to allow
         | any interaction except through proper channels when there's
         | litigation involved, and they can apply this here.
         | 
         | I don't think barring someone from your property is a good
         | punishment against someone who is trying to sue you, since that
         | kinda implies they "dislike" you already and wouldn't want to
         | engage with you
        
       | dehrmann wrote:
       | Interesting. I think she knows she has no case, but realized her
       | eviction put them in violation of their liquor license, fighting
       | back where it really hurt. Banning lawyers might not be the best
       | idea.
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | The problem _is_ that her eviction has no case, so might as
         | well weaponize the liquor license to arrive at a similar
         | outcome. They got Capone on tax evasion. Picking a fight with
         | sophisticated legal practitioners seems...poorly thought out?
         | 
         | High level, perhaps private venues shouldn't be able to ban
         | someone from a venue simply because of who employs them?
         | Perhaps craft the legislation around annual patrons served.
        
         | BizarroLand wrote:
         | I am not sure why you would say that she has no case. On the
         | one hand, it's a common understanding that businesses can bar
         | anyone from their premises for any reason, and that would be
         | the normal interpretation of this issue, but in this
         | circumstance, the lawyer does have a legitimate response in
         | that they have agreed to waive that authority in exchange for
         | the permission to serve alcohol on premises.
         | 
         | On the other hand, they sold her a ticket to a show and then
         | unilaterally voided that ticket without warning based on
         | something that had only the smallest connection to her, which
         | could be considered retaliation against the law firm that is
         | handling the case.
         | 
         | There isn't any doubt about the facts of the case, the only
         | question is how will a judge and jury allocate fault and
         | responsibility.
         | 
         | That's a really good case for any competent lawyer and I'm
         | pretty sure their legal team is not very happy right now.
        
           | gregors wrote:
           | When you say "can bar anyone from their premises for any
           | reason" I don't think you've fully thought that out. Can I
           | ban you from attending based on race? That answer is no, I
           | cannot. Why? Because that is a protected status. The Civil
           | Rights Act of 1964 is a good thing.
        
             | mannerheim wrote:
             | Banning someone because they're part of a protected class
             | is typically the only exception, and not applicable here.
        
               | mission_failed wrote:
               | Given that a small number of companies are concentrating
               | ownership of businesses, there really should be
               | legislation that restricts their ability to 'ban' people.
               | 
               | Australia has 2 main supermarket chains, and they also
               | own numerous other stores/brands. If one decided to ban
               | you from every store it makes it very hard to shop for
               | food.
        
           | rootusrootus wrote:
           | > That's a really good case for any competent lawyer and I'm
           | pretty sure their legal team is not very happy right now.
           | 
           | I'm surprised that the policy of banning litigating lawyers
           | ever passed their legal department to begin with. It's just
           | inviting a guaranteed headache without providing any
           | additional legal advantage.
        
             | treis wrote:
             | James Dolan, as any Knicks fan will tell you, is a gigantic
             | idiot. He's CEO of his daddy's company and basically sucks
             | at everything he does.
        
               | tqi wrote:
               | Yeah this seems like a Dolan special: petty, poorly
               | thought out, and potentially costly.
        
               | robocat wrote:
               | James' name showed up in the comments yesterday because
               | he is CEO of AMC:
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34057496
        
       | baxtr wrote:
       | She wasn't allowed to a show because she is working as a lawyer.
       | 
       |  _> Conlon is an associate with the New Jersey based law firm,
       | Davis, Saperstein and Solomon, which for years has been involved
       | in personal injury litigation against a restaurant venue now
       | under the umbrella of MSG Entertainment.
       | 
       | "I don't practice in New York. I'm not an attorney that works on
       | any cases against MSG," said Conlon.
       | 
       | But MSG said she was banned nonetheless -- along with fellow
       | attorneys in that firm and others._
        
       | gonzo wrote:
       | "You have zero privacy anyway, get over it." -- Scott McNealy,
       | then CEO of Sun, Jan 1999
        
       | happytoexplain wrote:
       | >MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys
       | pursuing active litigation against the Company from attending
       | events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved.
       | 
       | While it's reasonable to disagree with this policy, it's not
       | really related to _social dystopia_ , so I think it's dramatic to
       | lament this in the vein of "today it's this, tomorrow it will be
       | getting banned due to Tweeting about your politics", or whatever.
       | I mean, yes, that may happen, but the only thing concerning about
       | this case is the tech itself, and not necessarily the rationale
       | under which it was deployed.
        
         | ch4s3 wrote:
         | Jumping from "attorneys pursuing active litigation" to anyone
         | working with such persons, and from "litigation against the
         | Company" to "any ongoing litigation against subsidiaries
         | despite date of purchase or litigation" makes it far from
         | clear. Also selling the ticket despite such a "straightforward
         | policy" seems like it may bring up a tricky contract issue.
        
         | kuschku wrote:
         | It becomes a social dystopia when it's not just "you're banned
         | from places you're suing" but "you're banned from places in
         | half the country because they're all actually just owned by the
         | same company"
        
         | dragonwriter wrote:
         | > While it's reasonable to disagree with this policy, it's not
         | really related to _social dystopia_ [...] While it's reasonable
         | to disagree with this policy, it's not really related to social
         | politics, so I think it's dramatic to lament this in the vein
         | of "today it's this, tomorrow it will be getting banned due to
         | Tweeting about your politics", or whatever. I mean, yes, that
         | may happen, but the only thing concerning about this case is
         | the tech itself
         | 
         | Tolerance for use of the technology without restrictions is,
         | arguably, a way in which this relates to _social dystopia_.
         | 
         | Technology doesn't do anything on its own; people using it (and
         | other people allowing other people to use it) in certain ways
         | is always social.
        
       | _boffin_ wrote:
       | Question: if she purchased the ticket under her own name and she
       | held a valid ticket upon entry to the venue, would it be fraud if
       | one doesn't get access to the event? Even more so if she doesn't
       | get a full refund?
       | 
       | One would presume that there would be measures in place during
       | checkout that would inhibit transactions that go against their
       | policies to not go through.
        
         | creaghpatr wrote:
         | Guessing their on-site security stack must not be integrated
         | with their transaction platform. Or someone else could have
         | paid for the tickets.
        
       | SpaceManNabs wrote:
       | Yet the audience of hacker news typically leans on hating any
       | sense of ethics in AI (check my recent comment history). This is
       | a problem. We need to take ethics in AI seriously.
        
       | irrational wrote:
       | > It's un-American to do this.
       | 
       | This seems like a very American thing to do all of this. The
       | lawsuit, the facial recognition, the counter lawsuit. So very
       | American.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | rrdharan wrote:
         | Actually it sounds very European to me - banning known
         | hooligans from soccer stadiums?
         | 
         | https://www.wired.com/story/soccer-world-cup-biometric-surve...
         | 
         | https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15435620/champions-league...
        
           | _visgean wrote:
           | they are banning them because they have already caused
           | trouble in similar situation. This is very different, she is
           | being banned even though there is no indication that she
           | would be security threat.
        
           | KptMarchewa wrote:
           | You don't need any facial recognition for that, just get
           | their ID to check if they are not banned while selling them
           | tickets.
        
             | bmelton wrote:
             | Tickets are transferable. Not-banned persons can give them
             | to banned persons.
        
             | xeromal wrote:
             | Seems pretty weird to require IDs for a simple ticket to a
             | show.
        
               | KptMarchewa wrote:
               | We're talking about football games, not a show in this
               | subthread.
        
               | xeromal wrote:
               | They're all the same to me. Entertainment.
        
               | KptMarchewa wrote:
               | Not really, risk profile is totally different between
               | football game and opera.
        
               | brezelgoring wrote:
               | Anecdotal but having visited a few countries that have
               | national IDs, they use them with just about anything
               | worth having. Tickets, SIM cards, Service Agreements, you
               | name it.
               | 
               | I live in Uruguay and you need to use your ID very often
               | when doing commercial stuff.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic flamewar. Last
         | thing we need here.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
       | tedd4u wrote:
       | How do you suppose they got her photo (and associated it with her
       | identity)? Is there someone at MSG (or their facial recognition
       | vendor) whose job it is to look her up on Facebook (Or her
       | employer's "about" page)?
        
         | unreal37 wrote:
         | Probably she is associated with that firm on LinkedIn... It's
         | not easy to imagine how someone gets a database of photos of
         | employees of a law firm.
         | 
         | I'd bet she self-identified as being an employee and posted to
         | social media about it.
        
         | lavishlatern wrote:
         | Common practice for the websites of law firms (and some other
         | fields like private equity) to have the headshots of all
         | employees on their website with job title and description in a
         | nice table.
         | 
         | Example of a different firm where you can even filter by
         | school: https://www.wlrk.com/attorneys/?asf_l=View%20All
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | pfoof wrote:
       | So they discriminated a lawyer to not get sued? Doesn't that
       | sound like they just jumped into an anthill?
        
       | methodover wrote:
       | Dystopian SaaS idea: Integrate facial recognition and Yelp
       | reviews. If someone shows up who gave you a negative review, send
       | a text to staff and/or deny sale at POS.
       | 
       | Please, no one make this.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | A lawyer was banned from seeing a popular show for reasons
       | entirely unrelated to physical safety, with an FR twist. She then
       | hit back at their liquor license. Who's got popcorn??
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | The hit back at the liquor license (which apparently requires
         | admitting the general public, with only very specific
         | exceptions) sounded pretty clever to me.
        
           | nemacol wrote:
           | Clever but a clear sign that we have no protections on the
           | books for anything like this.
           | 
           | That someone needs to resort to clever liquor license dispute
           | adds to the dystopian feel of this story.
        
           | rexpop wrote:
           | It's a hack in a domain in which I am not a hacker! Makes me
           | feel vulnerable.
        
             | Xeoncross wrote:
             | Yes, people in a vulnerable position routinely get hurt and
             | just about every citizen is vulnerable to multiple
             | someones.
             | 
             | It's unfortunate that certain professions have extremely
             | high walls around them: police, doctors, lawyers, even
             | certain elected officials and select other professions are
             | very hard to displace, while their position grants them
             | very easy tools to displace, manipulate, or harm others.
        
           | NaturalPhallacy wrote:
           | Hence the popcorn!
        
         | VWWHFSfQ wrote:
         | The woman's law firm is in active litigation with MSG
         | Entertainment. She knows she's not allowed on the premises
         | while the lawsuits are unresolved. They saw her and kicked her
         | out.
         | 
         | But this is a controversy because Girl Scout Mom got spotted by
         | facial recognition I guess. Not the fact that she was
         | trespassing.
         | 
         | Last month MSG revoked the corporate suite leased by a law firm
         | that was _actively suing them_. And they made the same big
         | stink about how unfair it was that they can't go to Knicks
         | games anymore.
        
           | Pigalowda wrote:
           | Sure we can take that matter of fact approach, and she
           | accepts. However MSG is now not allowed to have a liquor
           | license as a matter of fact.
        
             | VWWHFSfQ wrote:
             | Nah MSG is still allowed to sell alcohol. But this woman is
             | not allowed on the premises.
        
               | gpvos wrote:
               | For now, yes. But they'll have to stop selling alcohol
               | soon.
        
           | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
           | So I get that this is true, but I don't understand why people
           | are being so "Bob's your uncle" about it. I get that it's a
           | policy but why do so many act like it doesn't deserve
           | criticism?
        
         | gpvos wrote:
         | FR = ?
        
           | ancientworldnow wrote:
           | Facial Recognition
        
       | defen wrote:
       | Radio City Music Hall is a private venue, they can ban or exclude
       | anyone they want, as long as it's not due to membership in a
       | protected class. You don't have a right to attend a Rockettes
       | show, and if she doesn't like this policy she can start her own
       | Christmas Spectacular show.
        
         | guerrilla wrote:
         | Why are you working against your own interest?
        
           | renewiltord wrote:
           | Working against one's own interest because one believes in a
           | higher principle is a good thing. It's what we call "being
           | principled".
        
             | guerrilla wrote:
             | Let me rephrase then: Why is GP working against the
             | interests of everyone who isn't a rich asshole abusing
             | their power? I hope that's clearer.
        
             | RC_ITR wrote:
             | Sure but this whole "being principled" thing is so weird
             | when people focus exclusively on the laws.
             | 
             | Sure they can do this without anyone getting sued, but they
             | can still _face consequences_ for doing it (like people not
             | going to see the Rockettes).
             | 
             | People like the OP seem to forget that legality is not the
             | ultimate moral code.
        
               | fullshark wrote:
               | Being compelled by the state to do something you don't
               | want to do (e.g. provide a service to someone) is what
               | they are objecting to in principle I think, and they see
               | THAT as a potential slippery slope more so than the
               | opposite issue (being unable to pay for services due to
               | societal freeze out).
        
               | RC_ITR wrote:
               | Again, I'm not arguing laws in this branch of the thread.
               | 
               | I'm just saying people who lean on "the law is this, they
               | are in the right" ignore a _major_ part of society and
               | commerce to their own detriment.
        
               | fullshark wrote:
               | I don't think that's what he's saying so much as the law
               | reflects the principle I outline and they likely admire:
               | state should in general not compel individuals (or
               | businesses) to do things they don't want to do.
               | 
               | The idea that the law is just a bunch of words and your
               | job is to advocate for them to change if it improves your
               | life in any way is not a great guiding principle.
        
               | Apocryphon wrote:
               | But treating the law as ironclad and immutable to the
               | detriment of practical outcomes is just as bad. Therein
               | lies the tension of civilization that must be kept in
               | balance.
        
               | RC_ITR wrote:
               | >state should in general not compel individuals (or
               | businesses) to do things they don't want to do.
               | 
               | This is a very easy thing to say as a member of majority
               | groups, but American (and South African and European,
               | and...) history has shown that this attitude leads to
               | some of the most grotesque outcomes in history.
               | 
               | And where does it end? Should subsidies and variable tax
               | rates be illegal (hope you're not a member of a church or
               | a supporter of the arts!)? Those are control mechanisms
               | the government uses to influence behaviors.
               | 
               | Should federal employment be illegal? I don't think most
               | Soldiers would risk their lives if not for the
               | paycheck/benefits.
               | 
               | Is the problem only with mandates?
        
               | BizarroLand wrote:
               | "Being compelled by the state to do something you don't
               | want to do (e.g. provide a service to someone) is what
               | they are objecting to"
               | 
               | That's not what happened though. They sold admission to a
               | person and then rejected it because that person works for
               | a firm that has an open case against another company that
               | they're conglomerated with.
               | 
               | It smells like retaliation to me, but I guess it will
               | come down to what the courts decide.
        
             | WarOnPrivacy wrote:
             | > Working against one's own interest because one believes
             | in a higher principle is a good thing. It's what we call
             | "being principled".
             | 
             | It can be a good thing while we regularly and objectively
             | evaluate a principle's worth. We humans have a history of
             | allowing principles to obtain rigidity and the diminished
             | outcomes that follow. We also tend to allow principle creep
             | w/o sufficient examination.
        
               | guerrilla wrote:
               | -
        
               | WarOnPrivacy wrote:
               | I assume because GP is at a point where they can use and
               | value a principle but have not yet realized that (to
               | remain beneficial) principles need rigorous reevaluation
               | and updating.
        
         | ProAm wrote:
         | Except for the state provided liquor license they have that
         | dictates differently.
        
         | ch4s3 wrote:
         | While in principle I'm inclined to agree, I'm not sure I want
         | to live in a world where you might get yanked from a business
         | after paying for entry because your employer is deemed to be
         | adversarial. This has a nasty tinge of a cyberpunk dystopia. It
         | fells at best illiberal, in the classical sense it like a kind
         | of techno-mercantilism.
        
           | Orangeair wrote:
           | What really bothers me here is that the lady wasn't even
           | involved in a lawsuit against Radio City Music Hall, it just
           | happens to be the case that they're connected through some
           | billion dollar conglomerate to the restaurant that she's
           | involved in litigation with.
           | 
           | Pissing off a mom and pop store and getting banned from that
           | one location is one thing, but treading on the toe of an
           | enormous corporation and being met with this just doesn't sit
           | right with me.
        
             | drewbeck wrote:
             | Yeah the possible chilling effect here is terrifying tbh,
             | especially with all the mergers happening. Using the courts
             | to get redress is a core pillar of our world (whether it
             | should be or not is another topic). Imagine if Live Nation
             | had a policy that anybody who works for any firm who is
             | involved in any litigation against the company (or it's
             | many subsidiaries) can't attend any of their shows or go to
             | any of their venues. Firms would absolutely hesitate before
             | they took on any related case bc of the impact on their
             | employees, functionally increasing the ability of LN to do
             | more bad.
             | 
             | It's a gross system.
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | Moving corporate conflict resolution out of the courts
               | looks like a slope that could become quite slippery in
               | the future.
        
         | indymike wrote:
         | > Radio City Music Hall is a private venue, they can ban or
         | exclude anyone they want, as long as it's not due to membership
         | in a protected class.
         | 
         | There are a ton of laws preventing this behavior by venues.
         | Basically if you sell tickets to the public, you HAVE to let
         | the ticket holders in, barring bad behavior at the gate or
         | contraband. The idea that something is private means you can do
         | whatever you want is very naive.
         | 
         | > if she doesn't like this policy she can start her own
         | Christmas Spectacular show.
         | 
         | She can also just sue and demand hearings about licenses that
         | further prevent this kind of behavior (i.e. public venue,
         | hospitality, zoning, liquor, food and beverage, etc...). From a
         | social/business standpoint, punishing lawyers for working for
         | an opposing firm is very small minded.
         | 
         | Also facial recognition telling gate agents who a member of the
         | public works for is scummy.
        
           | monksy wrote:
           | MSG Certainly does not abide by that.("you have to let ticket
           | holders in")
           | 
           | I was banned entry [Chicago Theater] (not formally but at the
           | door which was weird as that I was not trying to progress in)
           | for refusing to encase my phone in the yonder pouch. Once
           | denied, I requested a full refund of my ticket. I don't
           | recall having the notice when I bought the ticket and the the
           | ticket didn't state the phone casing. (This was chris rock)
        
             | indymike wrote:
             | They will say, so sue us, and you should.
        
             | ipaddr wrote:
             | You could have launched a lawsuit claim damages.
        
               | xeromal wrote:
               | That would probably cost them more than 80$
        
               | Apocryphon wrote:
               | Wonder if there was a way to register as future
               | plaintiffs for a potential class action suit of everyone
               | else who was turned away for similar reasons.
        
               | monksy wrote:
               | I would be 100% willing to be apart of this.
        
               | monksy wrote:
               | The question later was:
               | 
               | 1. How much time would this take
               | 
               | 2. How willing would attorneys be willing to persue this?
               | 
               | 3. How many attorneys can you actually contact about
               | this? (This deals with the entertainment industry..
               | they're very well funded and very aggressive.
               | 
               | ---- Then it came down is.. is it worth reaching out to
               | the IL Attorney General about this? I didn't because I
               | was exhausted by then and they probably wouldn't take it
               | up due to the complexity of the transaction.
               | 
               | This situation simply is: A third party holder of tickets
               | (TM) issueing a ticket to a show venue (Chris
               | Rock+MSG|Chicago Theater), rejecting entry to an
               | individual (me) with a ticket, but preventing me from
               | being able to honor the ticket (due to rules from the
               | Chris Rock group to the venue). And the whole case
               | involves a group v 1 conversation involving all parties
               | except for TM.
        
         | fullshark wrote:
         | Well with advances in surveillance tech maybe we should rethink
         | that general principle, as we have re: the protected class
         | carve out you mention. You may be ok with this but how about
         | excluding certain members due to low social credit scores? Or
         | because they vote a certain way? Or because they said something
         | mean on twitter about the owner? etc.
        
           | mistrial9 wrote:
           | similar to the legality of unpleasant speech .. a private
           | venue does have the right to exclude because it is..
           | privately owned.
           | 
           | Instead of taking to the streets (or social media) in
           | righteous anger, I suggest considering your economic support
           | right now, of companies that build and operate societal
           | surveillance machinery; that build and operate companies that
           | rely on indentured servitude; companies that build and
           | operate private shopping areas with pleasing music and eye-
           | catching ads while paving the living earth and hiring private
           | snoopers. worthy of scrutiny and operating widely today in
           | your town, no?
        
             | fullshark wrote:
             | Data collection / sharing regulations should absolutely be
             | passed in America asap. Laws re: facial recognition are
             | being passed in part because it creeps us out but that's
             | just the tip of the iceberg. EU is taking the lead here
             | because these are American companies, but I no longer look
             | at things like "right to be forgotten" or GDPR or whatever
             | and scoff at those wacky Euros.
        
         | analog31 wrote:
         | It's a corporation, which blurs the notion of what it means to
         | be "private." To assert its rights as a private entity, the
         | venue could restructure itself as a Sole Proprietorship or
         | Partnership.
        
           | dragonwriter wrote:
           | > It's a corporation, which blurs the notion of what it means
           | to be "private."
           | 
           | Legally, under established precedent, it does not, though a
           | legal doctrine that as creations of the state through law
           | corporations are bound by the same due process and equal
           | protection rules that would affect all other state organs
           | _would_ be interesting, as would the corollary that _foreign_
           | corporations, as creations of _foreign_ states, are arms of
           | their governments, and that their agents, including employees
           | and domestic subsidiaries and _their_ employees, are agents
           | of foreign governments subject to all the rules and
           | restrictions applicable thereto would be interesting.
        
             | analog31 wrote:
             | There are aspects of corporate law, such as limitation of
             | liability, that correspond to no natural rights of private
             | individuals. In fact, that's probably the granddaddy of all
             | entitlements.
        
         | monocasa wrote:
         | I mean, taking the article at face value (which, albeit, can be
         | a bit of a leap sometimes), they've had both a court order to
         | stop this practice and it's out of compliance with other
         | regulations to ban these individuals.
        
         | kodyo wrote:
         | Amen. Parallel industries will spring up to serve those
         | disenfranchised from establishment dystopian nonsense, and the
         | ongoing ideological self-segregation will accelerate.
         | 
         | Best of all possible outcomes.
        
           | rurp wrote:
           | I wouldn't be so sure of this. There are countless examples
           | of businesses applying gross discrimination practices for
           | _generations_ , and only stopping when forced to by the
           | government.
        
             | kodyo wrote:
             | Yep. That's the current narrative. Well done.
             | 
             | Jim Crow laws were passed and enforced by the government.
             | There are countless examples of businesses having no choice
             | but to discriminate because government told them to.
             | 
             | The government itself determined that segregation was A-OK
             | as long as things were "separate but equal."
        
           | Apocryphon wrote:
           | Parallel industries are hard to spring up when, as mentioned
           | elsewhere in this discussion, entrenched oligopolies like
           | MSGE and Live Nation buy up all of the independent venues.
           | Unchecked corporate interests are the biggest enemies to free
           | market competition and capitalism.
        
         | dragonwriter wrote:
         | > Radio City Music Hall is a private venue, they can ban or
         | exclude anyone they want
         | 
         | I don't think anyone is arguing that this is outside of their
         | legal rights.
         | 
         | Things can be undesirable without being illegal, and just as
         | MSG can legally punish this lawyer for distant connection to a
         | lawsuit against them without violating the law, other people
         | can note the behavior, criticize it, and even punish MSG for it
         | in their business relations without violating the law.
        
         | RC_ITR wrote:
         | You are forgetting that they have the right to not _sell
         | tickets_ to whomever they choose, but once that ticket is sold,
         | they are on very shaky ground to ban someone unless they
         | misrepresented who they were when buying the ticket.
         | 
         | Tickets are contracts!
         | 
         | How can they prove this isn't some bogus way to account for
         | oversold seats? What if an airline did the same on oversold
         | flights?
        
           | defen wrote:
           | > they are on very shaky ground to ban someone unless they
           | misrepresented who they were when buying the ticket.
           | 
           | Then I suppose it will come down to whether the ticket terms
           | included a clause that the purchaser/attendee was not
           | employed by a firm involved in a lawsuit against MSGE.
        
             | skywal_l wrote:
             | Yes, that's why every time I buy something I check the list
             | of companies my employers is in litigation with. /s
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | RC_ITR wrote:
             | Show me on the Ticketmaster website where the TOS is shown
             | before purchase.
        
           | monksy wrote:
           | Nope they always have a clause stating that they can remove
           | you from the venue for what ever reason they want.
           | 
           | Ticket master also has anti-chargeback clauses as well.
        
             | RC_ITR wrote:
             | Oh, remove and deny entry mean the same thing now?
             | 
             | Listen, if you're going to be a pedantic law critic, at
             | least be iron clad.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | nashashmi wrote:
       | Her legal case:
       | 
       | > A sign says facial recognition is used as a security measure to
       | ensure safety for guests and employees.
       | 
       | Use of facial recognition is disclosed with a reason for its
       | purpose. They used the same technology for a different purpose
       | without full disclosure. This is grounds for a violation,
       | although civil. IANAL.
       | 
       | However, she is going about this through another route. Liquor
       | license does not allow them to eject people from service. MSG has
       | a civil policy they will not allow anyone (including lawyers)
       | associated in litigation to enter their venues. Obviously both
       | policies contradict at this point.
       | 
       | My opinion is no one should have any policy that allows lawyers
       | of parties to a lawsuit to be hurt in any way.
        
       | MBCook wrote:
       | We all know how this works. It's perfectly legal until someone in
       | congress is impacted, then legislation will suddenly appear about
       | this "new horrible invasion of privacy".
       | 
       | Similar to the video rental privacy act.
        
       | monksy wrote:
       | So I have been rejected and "banned" from a MSG venue. It's not
       | fun, and it has nothing to do with your behavior.
       | 
       | It was at the Chicago Theather and it was the Chris Rock show
       | back in 2017. I bought the ticket, I don't believe that it had
       | any special restrictions [this was a long time ago], the ticket
       | had no indications about the "phoneless"/phone encasing demand.
       | The event page didn't say anything about this. However they were
       | trying to force this. I refused
       | 
       | Why did I refuse? The Bataclan attack* happened less than 2 years
       | before this and mobile phones did [it was reported at the time]
       | help people communicate for help and escape. This is a big venue,
       | and I certainly don't trust a venue who doesn't trust their
       | ushers who can't get people to stop filming. Think they're going
       | to know how to call the cops/handle an emergergcy? lol.
       | 
       | What happened? Since I was denied, I asked for a refund from the
       | venue. The main security guard corralled me against the wall,
       | waited for the manager, the manager argued with me and refused
       | refund [even despite the ticket saying nothing about this, their
       | overall policy said nothing about this [I checked to see if I
       | could bring my small camera with me]], when the manager left to
       | get an artist rep she felt the need to "ban me" to another
       | security guard, they got a "artist rep" trying to argue against
       | me using "well this is the artist's preference". (Why they
       | brought out the stupid artist rep is beyond me)
       | 
       | Ultimately I lost that 80$ and will shit talk Chris Rock, any
       | venue, and any artist who uses the yondr device.
       | 
       | * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2015_Paris_attacks
        
         | rmorey wrote:
         | I've gone to several comedy shows (5 or so?) that use the Yondr
         | bags, and honestly I think they're a pretty good solution. I
         | think it's fair for artists and comedians to want to prevent
         | filming, and the phone jail thing is quite clever, actually.
         | The bags are not indestructible, it seems like a sharp pair of
         | scissors or a knife would get you in. And I think the magnet
         | lock is actually bypassable otherwise. It's just inconvenient
         | enough that everyone pretty much just complies, while retaining
         | physical possession of their phone. I kinda like the experience
         | as an audience member, I think the phone thing does keep the
         | audience more engaged with the show. I'm open to arguments
         | against, but as it stands I find the phone jail charming
        
           | monksy wrote:
           | I fully respect your preference there. I'm also glad we can
           | have a civil agreement/disagreement about this.
           | 
           | > it seems like a sharp pair of scissors or a knife would get
           | you in
           | 
           | You have neither of those during the time of an emergency.
           | They've already taken those things away at the door with the
           | metal detector.
           | 
           | They do "have an area where you can unlock it" however it's a
           | restricted area.. and not much of a use during an emergency.
           | 
           | > It's just inconvenient enough that everyone pretty much
           | just complies
           | 
           | I feel like that's why it's gotten so far as it has.
        
         | chroma wrote:
         | I guarantee that you clicked through some terms and conditions
         | while buying that ticket, and it almost certainly said that
         | phones weren't allowed. This is quite common at comedy shows
         | because comedians develop their material over time. They don't
         | want clips of jokes failing to land or being taken out of
         | context, as that could hurt their career. Recording also
         | emboldens hecklers, as one friend can record (or even
         | livestream) while another insults the performer.
        
           | 15155 wrote:
           | How does Yondr prevent recording? Why is my phone not
           | recording inside the pouch?
        
           | crazygringo wrote:
           | Back in 2017 it wasn't that common yet. I think Yondr is a
           | great solution for comedians, but can also totally see that
           | it wouldn't have made it into terms and conditions yet. I
           | don't think you can guarantee anything in this case unless
           | you have the actual T&C from that particular show.
        
             | monksy wrote:
             | I disagree with your statement about the comedians, unless
             | you're talking about a full length recording that is being
             | sold on. But for those people, you go after them in the
             | courts for piracy after the fact.
             | 
             | Most of the bits captured are/will be out of context and
             | useless. My personal desire to "record" is short "i'm here"
             | clips or pictures. (Music productions, clips, photo for the
             | show) TM claimed "there was nothing extra" on the ticket.
             | (I contacted them but did not try to pull a refund as that
             | I know that TM is going to pull the "well this is the
             | venues' issue")
        
               | crazygringo wrote:
               | > _Most of the bits captured are /will be out of context
               | and useless._
               | 
               | Actual history shows the opposite. The entire reason for
               | Yondr is precisely because people _were_ posting bits
               | that comedians were trying out, and then people were
               | jumping on  "so-and-so told an offensive joke!" on
               | Twitter and it becomes a whole thing. Comedians are
               | terrified of getting "cancelled" because they tried
               | wording their joke a different way to see what the
               | audience reaction would be.
               | 
               | If people were just recording "I'm here" clips then Yondr
               | would never have existed.
        
           | monksy wrote:
           | This has been a long time ago, it's possible, I know the show
           | description at the time of purchase didn't mention it, the
           | ticket didn't mention it and the venue policy didn't mention
           | anything about this. Ticketmaster after the fact didn't state
           | there were any additional T&Cs attached to the ticket.
        
         | slingnow wrote:
        
           | monksy wrote:
           | I was assertive and not aggressive. I tried to do friendly
           | chit chat with the security guy trying to corner me against
           | the wall so "I wouldn't escape into their venue". (People
           | dealing with the public have very short fuses when it comes
           | to non-polite language on ejecting you/banning you/etc.. I
           | have no plans to giving them the ability to invoke that
           | policy despite their frequent gas lighting "well this is what
           | the artist demands")
           | 
           | > unclear
           | 
           | This about a venue's (MSG, which also runs the one that the
           | Rockeets played at) overzealous and seedy decisions to deny
           | entry.
        
         | moloch-hai wrote:
         | This sort of thing, everywhere, is exactly what to expect from
         | "deregulation".
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | A venue can dictate how you dress and behave, but can't
           | dictate that you not carry in a cellphone?
           | 
           | Not clearly telling someone with anxiety that their (very
           | common) safety blanket isn't allowed in the venue before they
           | buy the ticket it a problem, but it's a problem with how we
           | treat Terms-of-Service and EULAs that are too long and
           | legalistic as binding. It's good that people can't have their
           | cellphones at comedy shows.
        
           | justanorherhack wrote:
           | Yes and if enough people actually thought about it and cared
           | then they wouldnt participate and the market would change.
           | But instead just like with regulation they don't care. It's
           | just one is forced and one is a choice.
        
             | SQueeeeeL wrote:
             | An artistic show tend to have weirdly inelastic demand. If
             | someone is a committed fan, they will typically pay any
             | amount of money to "worship their idol" (not in a negative
             | way, ritualized communal, artist performances are some of
             | the earliest human traditions we have).
             | 
             | To see a society in which very few limits were placed on
             | who could see a concert, look up Metallica playing when the
             | USSR fell, absolutely massive.
        
           | notinfuriated wrote:
           | I'm unclear on how this is a regulation or deregulation
           | thing. There could be a regulation that specifically allows
           | for _or_ denies smartphones at such events. It 's
           | hypothetical at this point, so why is deregulation to blame
           | in this case now?
        
             | monksy wrote:
             | You can make the claim that ADA/disability rights were
             | denied by the venue. (See the bluetooth gluclose monitors
             | and people are extremely fragile or blind with the use of
             | aids)
             | 
             | With regulation this a slam dunk.
             | 
             | With deregulation- they're getting away with "per venue's
             | discretion" - But I have heard of medical staff being
             | rejected because they were oncall or parents who had a baby
             | sitter.
        
             | crmd wrote:
             | It's only a big deal because regulators allowed companies
             | like MSGE and Live Nation to buy up all the independent
             | venues. No one would care if a single fascist club owner
             | was terrorizing customers because the free market would
             | punish him.
        
             | cool_dude85 wrote:
             | Presumably you could have a law saying what kinds of things
             | are or aren't sufficient grounds to ban people from places.
        
         | BeFlatXIII wrote:
         | > Ultimately I lost that 80$
         | 
         | Why didn't you chargeback for services not received?
        
         | vorpalhex wrote:
         | The yondr device looks like it could be defeated with a magnet
         | or a sharp knife.
        
           | josephcsible wrote:
           | Places that use Yondr also make you go through airport-like
           | security and won't allow either of those things in.
        
             | vorpalhex wrote:
             | A magnet can be attached to your keys so it looks like a
             | prox pass. No security guard is going to argue about the
             | contents of your keyring.
             | 
             | I've had success with keeping (small) pocket knives on me.
             | Those metal detectors are almost always badly tuned since
             | false alarms are disruptive. I used to consider getting
             | some kind of fancy thermoplastic pocket knife but frankly
             | any cheap small knife works.
        
         | namuol wrote:
         | Yeesh. This whole thing sounds like some gross
         | commercialization of a problem blown out of proportion, that
         | doesn't really work, hurts honest customers, and only gets
         | enforced due to some sunk cost fallacy going on in the minds of
         | the venues/entertainers that were duped into using this
         | "product" by the IP attorneys that are throwing bad ideas out
         | there to justify the size of their salaries. I have no doubt
         | the same sort of thing is going on with the linked article,
         | only it's a different branch of the legal team involved this
         | time.
        
         | raldi wrote:
         | What was the phone requirement that you refused? Did they want
         | to confiscate your phone, lock it in a bag you physically
         | couldn't open, seal it in an envelope you got to keep but could
         | open in an emergency, just demand you keep it in your
         | pocket...?
        
           | vidanay wrote:
           | My guess would be "no phone allowed."
           | 
           | (Specifically, no video recording allowed, but most
           | enforcement is too stupid so they have a blanket
           | restriction.)
        
             | monocasa wrote:
             | There's also a 'I as the artist don't like to see the
             | audience on their phone' component a lot of the time as
             | well.
        
               | monksy wrote:
               | There are a lot of claims here. Their offical statements
               | are:
               | 
               | 1. They don't want their show recorded.
               | 
               | 2. They don't want their show "leaking" on the internet
               | ("loss of ticket sells")
               | 
               | 3. People using their phones "ruin the experience"
               | 
               | Realistically it's due to:
               | 
               | 1. They say libalious things. (Aka Hanable Burris talking
               | about Cosby before formal conversations were had) Also,
               | they say things that upset groups of people who try to
               | "boycott." Aka Louie and the Parkland shooting
               | joke./"Cancelled"
               | 
               | 2. They are pissy about bad recordings going up on the
               | internet and being caught behaving badly.
               | (https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/dave-
               | chappelle-fan...)
               | 
               | 3. It's there to protect notorious joke stealers from
               | being caught in the act.
        
             | monksy wrote:
             | Nearly all of the shows I've been to have "no recording
             | requests"/rules etc.
             | 
             | Most of the time who gets caught are the ones that bring a
             | full video camera. (Poor Rammstein requests no filming but
             | people have their phones out the whole time.. comes with a
             | big show)
             | 
             | This is an extra enforcement deal I'm referring to.
        
           | monocasa wrote:
           | The yondr bags are sealed faraday cages to keep you from
           | recording the show or being on your phone.
        
             | slowmovintarget wrote:
             | Reading about those... They basically lock away your phone
             | and they don't give you the key.
             | 
             | Not quite as bad as chaining people in their apartment
             | buildings to keep COVID-19 quarantines, but it certainly
             | would be reason enough for me to avoid a venue.
        
               | filoleg wrote:
               | They don't quite lock it away. They give you a special
               | pouch that locks, you put your phone in that pouch, lock
               | it, and then they unlock it for you at the end of the
               | show. Your phone doesn't leave you at any point.
               | 
               | Not trying to argue for or against that policy. But
               | comparing it even remotely to the COVID situation you are
               | describing (that is currently happening in a certain
               | country) is about as self-aggrandizing and out of touch
               | as it can get.
        
             | bewaretheirs wrote:
             | If the pouches had a tamper evident tool-less ripcord to
             | open it in the event of an emergency, I think that would
             | resolve the concerns about a Bataclan scenario.
        
               | monksy wrote:
               | I'd never thought of that. I would have accepted that
               | situation if it had a rip cord and not had been happy
               | about the requirement. However, I'm very confident that
               | it'll never happen as that people will pull the rip cord
               | to record. (Heck I would probably obey the rules and pull
               | the ripcord right before handing back the case to remove
               | the phone)
        
           | andybak wrote:
           | Yeah. I've never heard of this and "phoneless/phone encasing"
           | isn't returning much.
           | 
           | GP - what?
        
             | sunsunsunsun wrote:
             | Not OP but there are a few performers who like to either
             | confescate phones or place them in locked baggies to stop
             | the people who hold their phone in the air filming a video
             | nobody will ever watch.
             | 
             | In theory I like the idea but in practice I agree with OP.
        
               | monksy wrote:
               | > to stop the people who hold their phone in the air
               | filming a video nobody will ever watch.
               | 
               | This is the statement that I want to go up to you in
               | person physically grab you, shake you and tell you I love
               | you for making that statement. It's frustrating to be
               | gaslit by artist claiming that a youtube reproduction of
               | their concert/show is going to cause a justifiable loss
               | of future revenue. Looking back at the Rammstein stiched
               | concerts only makes me want to go more.
        
             | monksy wrote:
             | Look up "phone free" and you'll find the references. What
             | it is: It's a strong fabric case that locks you out of your
             | phone with a very strong magnet.(defaces the object you
             | have) This prevents you from answering the phone, making
             | calls, using the camera etc. Have a medical/police/medical-
             | staff being called back emergency? Good luck buddy, no one
             | cares about this.
             | 
             | The company who is doing this is Yondr. They've been doing
             | this for years. They've been doing this with musicians,
             | comedians, courtrooms, and even at schools. I'm amazed that
             | they have been getting away with this for so long.
             | 
             | Yondr has had a lot of astroturfing over the years so it's
             | harder to find the people who have had a bad experience
             | over the years. You'll see non-normally participating
             | people pop up in every comment section that mentions the
             | phone ban: "well i like that everyone isn't on their phone"
             | etc. Also, you'll see near promo news pieces on this.
             | Additionally there has been no public comment with this
             | that I know of, which is super auspicious from the US or
             | Europe. (Just did the research Placebo and Bono have
             | enforced this in Paris.. a bit brave considering the
             | bataclan)
             | 
             | EDIT: Dang, yes I said the a word (ends with turfing), this
             | is not a statement thats happening here.
        
               | progman32 wrote:
               | If a venue insists on treating me like guilty-until-
               | proven-innocent cattle, I will not go. I can't be alone
               | in this sentiment.
               | 
               | A friend of mine uses their phone to run an insulin pump.
               | Are there suitable exceptions? How about doctors which
               | may have obligations to their patient's calls?
        
             | filoleg wrote:
             | Never seen it happen at concerts, but it happens more often
             | than not at standup comedy shows.
        
         | the__alchemist wrote:
         | Credit card chargeback.
        
           | monksy wrote:
           | That would have invalidated my other tickets held by
           | Ticketmaster. I think I held a Metallica ticket at the time.
           | (Metallica let me into solder field with a Lecia Lumix LX10)
        
             | SoftTalker wrote:
             | Funny about Metallica. They went from being one of the lead
             | crusaders that brought Napster down, to now releasing their
             | new music with no restrictions, and allowing filming at
             | their concerts, because they have realized that on balance
             | they are gaining more from the publicity than they lose on
             | music sales.
        
             | BeFlatXIII wrote:
             | Then charge those back as well and bad mouth all those
             | bands.
        
             | josephcsible wrote:
             | Plus you'd probably never be able to go to any show that
             | Ticketmaster sells tickets to for the rest of your life.
        
         | andsoitis wrote:
         | > ushers who can't get people to stop filming.
         | 
         | Not only is it a numbers game (too many people to police), it
         | is also very annoying for other patrons when people are
         | constantly told to stop.
         | 
         | So banning the phones is a great solution that solves a number
         | of problems.
         | 
         | > Think they're going to know how to call the cops/handle an
         | emergergcy? lol.
         | 
         | Of course they do.
         | 
         | I really don't think you rationale for refusing to hand over
         | your phone holds up.
        
           | elmomle wrote:
           | While I am fine with bans on phones for performances, I too
           | would absolutely bristle and feel strongly inclined to
           | complain if that was not made clear at the time I bought a
           | ticket.
        
           | ezfe wrote:
           | If they actually kicked people out, not just say "please put
           | your phone away" people would learn it's not okay. The only
           | reason people do it is because they don't think they'll get
           | in trouble.
        
       | melony wrote:
       | Many open source software license have an automatic revocation
       | clause in the event of litigation too. Considering the viral
       | nature of software libraries, that could make life very difficult
       | for people too.
        
       | jt2190 wrote:
       | > Conlon is an associate with the New Jersey based law firm,
       | Davis, Saperstein and Solomon, which for years has been involved
       | in personal injury litigation against a restaurant venue now
       | under the umbrella of MSG Entertainment.
       | 
       | > "I don't practice in New York. I'm not an attorney that works
       | on any cases against MSG," said Conlon.
       | 
       | > But MSG said she was banned nonetheless -- along with fellow
       | attorneys in that firm and others.
        
       | Jerrrry wrote:
        
       | nraynaud wrote:
       | can someone explain a bit the reasonning behind banning opposing
       | lawyers from the defendant's venue?
       | 
       | I feel like it's to reduce "on the ground" discoveries in civil
       | cases, but I don't understand why, as far as I know those are
       | neither forbidden nor unethical, there is a later opportunity to
       | debate whether those discoveries gets introduced as evidence in
       | the case.
        
         | monksy wrote:
         | Retaliation.
        
           | nraynaud wrote:
           | I was trying to be generous and open in my question.
        
         | himinlomax wrote:
         | It's similar in purpose to sending your goons to break one of
         | the lawyers' knees, and barely more ethical.
        
       | yieldcrv wrote:
       | One angle is the liquor license
       | 
       | Another angle is their insurer
       | 
       | Another angle is their payment processor
       | 
       | You can likely get them back into community expectations
        
         | monksy wrote:
         | Probably could go criminal with fraud. They sold a ticket that
         | they did not intend to honor, and the person is not able to get
         | their money back.
        
           | yieldcrv wrote:
           | Now two law firms and the entire New York public sector cant
           | get in!
        
       | nraynaud wrote:
       | So if someone sues a subsidiary of the group they are banned in
       | the entire group?
       | 
       | That must be really tickling the layers when it's time to ask for
       | damages in civil cases: "well, we're asking to hold the entire
       | group in solidarity for damages, since they conduct business in
       | solidarity, whatever subsidiary we are actually naming in the
       | suite".
        
       | Nifty3929 wrote:
       | I think it would be helpful in the comments to separate the issue
       | of using facial recognition for public identification and entry,
       | from the other issue of whether this person should have been
       | allowed in regardless of the policy.
       | 
       | Personally I don't think facial recognition should be allowed for
       | public identification.
       | 
       | On the other hand, I think it's perfectly fine to bar opposing
       | attorneys actively working against you from entering your
       | business. This is not a member of the "general public" and wasn't
       | denied entry based on identity characteristics. She was banned
       | because she (her firm) is SUING THEM. That seems like a pretty
       | good reason right there...
        
       | CosmicShadow wrote:
       | The fucked thing about this is that as it's normalized and
       | justified it allows companies and venues to start blocking people
       | it doesn't like for whatever reason and essentially banishes them
       | from society for life.
       | 
       | Critical of Ticketmaster online and they start to take notice? I
       | guess you wont' be allowed into most venues or concerts for life
       | on this continent. We also won't tell you why you were banned or
       | offer a way out (because that's how Google and Facebook operate
       | and it suits us). It's allowing people to be kicked out of "real
       | world" walled gardens.
        
       | ipaddr wrote:
       | Facial recognition by private entities used to police a public
       | venue should be restricted or outlawed
        
         | jmbwell wrote:
         | Agreed, but what should we do when the "public venue" is owned
         | and controlled by a private entity?
         | 
         | The more we privatize, the more we allow to converge in the
         | private hands of the wealthy few, the less recourse the
         | "public" has.
        
       | kayodelycaon wrote:
       | This reminds me of an incident that showed up in one of my
       | college courses: A forklift driver who got fired for drinking
       | Budweiser.
       | 
       | He worked for a company that Miller Brewing company contacted
       | with and a newspaper took a photo of him at a public event
       | drinking Budweiser.
       | 
       | Different situation, same kind of pettiness and retaliation.
        
         | kiernanmcgowan wrote:
         | The required brand loyalty from Miller crazy - friends who have
         | worked for them will pour non-miller beverages into glassware
         | so that they can't be photographed holding a competitor's
         | product. This is not in public mind you, but at someone else's
         | apartment and not on company time.
         | 
         | Not sure if Budweiser / AB does the same thing back but its a
         | really backwards way to run a company culture.
        
           | tricky wrote:
           | AB did this for sure before the merger. Working there during
           | my prime, going-out-to-the-bars age, I was told that I should
           | only buy AB products and make sure the label was turned
           | outward for others to see. Thought it was weird but I only
           | drink whisky so it didn't really affect me.
        
           | panda88888 wrote:
           | Also something similar. A motorcycle (scooter) company in
           | Taiwan only allows their own brand motorcycle into the
           | company parking lot. So if you commute with a non-company
           | scooter, good luck finding parking.
        
             | esperent wrote:
             | Counterpoint to that: I've been shopping with my girlfriend
             | for a new scooter for her over the past few days. We went
             | to the Yamaha dealer which has limited space for parking in
             | front so all the staff bikes are mixed up with the show
             | bikes (it's Vietnam so 10 staff = 10 staff bikes).
             | 
             | We got to see the Honda equivalent parked right next to the
             | Yamaha we were considering (Honda Scoopy vs Yamaha Mio
             | Classico) and decided it looked nicer. Didn't decide yet
             | but she'll probably get the Honda.
             | 
             | So if people are going to the building to be impressed by
             | your bikes, yeah I can see that it's reasonable to avoid
             | having them parked right next to your competitors bikes
             | where the customers will walk past them. That counts x1000
             | for the head office where the customer might be shopping
             | for an entire dealership instead of just one bike.
             | 
             | This doesn't mean it's ok to say what bikes your staff can
             | drive or what beer they can drink, of course. But branding
             | at your own company premises is something that you can and
             | probably should control.
        
           | whoknew1122 wrote:
           | While my experience is over 15 years old now, it was a common
           | practice for the majority of beer distributors at the time.
        
         | TomK32 wrote:
         | https://journaltimes.com/news/local/he-had-a-bud-light-now-h...
         | 
         | Fired for driking Bud Light. Is that even beer I ask as a
         | German...
        
           | TheCleric wrote:
           | According to German law, no. According to US law, yes.
           | 
           | Now whether it's GOOD is a different question.
        
             | ArnoVW wrote:
             | When you say 'law', you're talking about the 500-year old
             | law that codifies what you can put in beer?
             | (reinheitsgebot) or did you have something else in mind?
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot
        
           | NaturalPhallacy wrote:
           | Legally speaking, it is beer.
        
             | kstrauser wrote:
             | Says so right on the label: "Technically, beer!"
        
           | kayodelycaon wrote:
           | I don't think whether or not Bud Light is beer is relevant to
           | the story.
           | 
           | And to answer your question, yes, it is beer, as defined by h
           | ttps://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-27/chapter-I/subchapter-A..
           | .
        
           | mindslight wrote:
           | It depends on how drunk the horse was.
        
           | rexpop wrote:
           | This joke is typically boring, but you've raised it to the
           | height of "in poor taste" by wielding it to segue out of the
           | serious subject of a man losing his job.
        
           | beebeepka wrote:
           | Got warrant?
        
         | schwoll wrote:
         | Well I'm never drinking another Miller again...
        
       | tasubotadas wrote:
       | That's another one for we-are-getting-closer-to-1984-dystopia
       | bingo.
        
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       (page generated 2022-12-20 23:01 UTC)