[Chat] trash picking

[Dale Ghent]

On Jun 1, 2005, at 3:40 PM, John Spurrier wrote:

> Henry Kissinger tried to claim that reporters who found empty  
> bottles of booze in his trash were tresspassers and that taking the  
> bottles was theft. He lost.

This also depends on the locale. Some say trash is no longer private  
property once its on the curb. Perhaps Kissinger lived in a area like  
that.

All I know that trash is private property until its collected by the  
owner's authorized hauler.

Rules like that have been used in the past by companies prosecuting  
dumpster-divers in silicon valley who came across trade secrets the  
company threw away (carelessly, but still - it was counted as stolen  
property)

A quick glance of the city waste laws and charter on  
baltimorecity.gov doesn't seem to make a clear definition of when  
ownership of garbage is terminated. I would say that absence of  
anything still means that its property.

But as an example, the city of Davis, CA does explicitly say who owns  
what:

http://www.city.davis.ca.us/cmo/citycode/detail.cfm?p=32&q=1189

/dale
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