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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

> Is projecting a message onto the wall of a building a trespass

How about an advertisement whose light enters the private space of my car?

Read the article. Judge's opinion quoted therein suggests there is a difference between ambient light entering private space as a side effect of projecting a message elsewhere and focused light entering the same space with the intent of creating the message within the space.

The opinion is tautological, there is no real difference.

>ambient light entering private space as a side effect of projecting a message elsewhere

Advertisements are not designed to be projected anywhere else besides your psyche.

>focused light entering the same space with the intent of creating the message within the space.

Again, visual advertisements are focused light created with the intent of inserting a message into your eyes and psyche.

The difference is that the ambient advertisement doesn't meaningfully change the appearance of your piece of property. And in any case, you have no legal right to shut out the world.

>The difference is that the ambient advertisement doesn't meaningfully change the appearance of your piece of property.

Property: a thing or things belonging to someone.

Do our minds not belong to us?

I just wanted to say this exchange about whether advertising can be likened to trespass and vandalism has been very thought provoking. Your argument holds water. Have an up-vote.

If you're redefining property that way, sure. But of course that's wrong in the legal sense. You've never had a legal right to control what enters your eyes and ears.

How about an advertisement via radio waves that enters everything in its path?

The top post, that's far more interesting, as it is immediately perceivable without equipment. This isn't the same as "broadcast radio" RF, where you can choose to simply turn off the radio.

Agree, more comparable example related would be sound ordnance and freedom of speech.

There are a number of laws related to endangering the public using light; for example, the issues related to lasers and airplane pilots.

You the property owner can turn off your radio, sure, but what if the radio is broadcasting fart sounds? You wouldn't want to have the reputation of the business where customers could turn on their radio to hear fart sounds, would you? Or embarrassing facts about you or your business, maybe. Or worse. Hitler speeches?

If they have to opt to turn on their radio, and tune to a frequency, how is that substantially different from just using their cell phone to read bad reviews about your business? Besides, jamming radio signals off of your own property is illegal, so this is only really relevant for ham bands.

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