Flyer distribution legality?

[Lolshevik]

Hi everyone. The day after tomorrow I'll be going around my town, posting some flyers & distributing leaflets and I have a few legal questions. Is it legal for you to hand out flyers on sidewalks, outside of businesses? I know that I can't just walk into Wal-Mart and declare the need for revolution (though it would be fun), but how far outside do you have to be? I'm probably just being over-cautious but I want to know my rights in case I'm harassed by management etc. Also, is it legal to post flyers on streetlight posts, places like that?

Thanks in advance everyone!

(For legal purposes so everyone knows, I live in the United States. And if people are curious, the flyers are in advertisement of Socialist Alternative - I'm trying to start a branch all the way out here in the Hawkeye state.)

[Muzk]

Couldn't find anything about the laws on google - but I do think you can hand out flyers on 'public' ground, like streets.

Where I live you aren't allowed to do it at schools/inside public buildings though.

Don't you have any conference committee for american leftist? You could call them.

[Comrade Ian]

It depends alot on the city you live in, in SF for example there are some posts you can put absolutely anything on and then some on which you can rack up $50 fines per posting. You should look at your city government's website and see if you can find anything on rules and regulations for event flyers. It is legal to hand out flyers on the sidewalk as long as you aren't impedeing traffic, you might want to find wider open areas just to be sure. As for in front of businesses you're free to do it as long as it's public, not private property you're standing on and as long as you aren't violating anything to do with block traffic etc. You have to be a bit careful with some places because there isn't always exactly a sign saying this is where government property ends and private property begins.

[Lolshevik]

Comrade Ian:
Gracias.


Don't you have any conference committee for american leftist? You could call them.

What?

[Muzk]

What?
I knew my dictionary wouldn't come up with a good translation <_<

Anyways, volunterary leftist organizations organizing things at protests - such as lawyers, arrests, etc.
Simply the people you could call if you were arrested.
But asking here might be just as good.

[Lolshevik]

Unfortunately I don't know of any such groups. :-/

[pastradamus]

A cop in the US will actually enforce an anti-flyer legislation? Fucking joke.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Hand them out. Dropping them would be considered littering.

[Bitter Ashes]

Not sure about the USA, but for anyone in the UK who stumbles across this and wants to know what applies there.

There was an act passed through parliment a few years ago that meant tha tlocal councils could enforce restrictions on the distribution of free media. This mainly reffers to leafletting, but can also mean free newspapers, books, CD's, DVD's etc so as to cut down on littering. If you go to your local council offices and ask, then they'll probably try to sell you a licence to distribute, which is to cover up the costs of cleaning up after you apparantly (yeah, right). In Kirklees council a license is £100 per distributer (!!!) and the application takes about two weeks.

The local wobbly branch is getting around this by not distributing leaflets on the streets, but rather approaching workers at thier workplaces and giving them leaflets there. As it's a private premesis, this is legal to do without a license, although the owner can throw you out, so be sensable.

There's also flyposting to get your message seen, although beware, this could be seen as criminal damage, so try to be careful not to link it directly to yourself.