I know it isn't really analogous but I can't imagine a parent walking 
into a school's administrative office and removing a file on his or her 
child. The file belong to the school, not to the individual whose 
activities are chronicled in them.   I'm surprised the artist thought 
that she could do this.

I'm not sure that Dean's online directory, phone book analogy applies.  
People do remove numbers from directories but it usually is by paying 
extra to have an "unpublished, unlisted" telephone number.  The file 
that Emily mentioned sounds as if it covers public, not private, 
information.  So I don't see how any privacy laws would apply.  If the 
file contains clippings and show cards, these are items in the public 
domain.

It sounds as if the artist is trying to have it both ways.  But the 
only way to avoid being written about (becoming the subject of news 
clippings) is to find a line of work that doesn't involve the type of 
contact with the public that an artist has.  Or not exhibit in the 
shows.  So I don't see how a lawyer could insist that clippings not be 
compiled.  For example, if any of you wanted to copy and print out 
Seymour Hersh's 1992 article on "Nixon's Last Cover-up" in the New 
Yorker which mentions me in several places, I don't see how I could 
prevent you from creating a subject file.  Or putting in any file you 
create the article that Richard Cox wrote about the Archives which 
quotes from a coouple of my postings.  Actually, I wouldn't care if you 
did that.  So, I'm left scratching my head over why the artist is so 
insistent about trying to control what seems to be information in the 
public domain that readily is available.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Maarja

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