29 May 2007

Thumbprint, Please

This is old news, apparently, but I'm just hearing it now. If you want to sell your used cds in Florida and Utah, and soon in Rhode Island and Wisconsin, you'll need to be able to provide legal identification and have your thumbprint taken. No joke.

NPR reports--and I'm searching for the story and will post it as soon as I get it--that the music industry has nothing to do with this, but who knows. It's plausible to me that this is a law meant to track gun exchanges through pawn shops, as well as protecting Joe Citizen whose car was broken into and now he's out trying to buy back his own cds as a result (been there, done that). Plus, with people getting shot at Christmas time for the newest Playstation, I can see how the cops would be interested in thumbprinting whoever's trying to sell said item. But still, this seems to lend itself to overreach a little too easily. Are secondhand books next?