New Gear On Threadless: Fire In A Crowded Theatre
from the you-can-indeed dept
Get your Fire In A Crowded Theatre gear in the Techdirt store on Threadless »
You've heard it said, usually in defense of some sort of restriction on free speech, and often by people who really should know better: "You can't yell fire in a crowded theatre!" There are a whole lot of reasons that it's a terrible phrase that should have died a long time ago (see Popehat's thorough explanation) but they won't all fit on a t-shirt, so our gear offers a simple rebuttal. It's an old favorite design that we're relaunching today in our Threadless store: You Can Yell Fire In A Crowded Theatre.
As always, the design is available on t-shirts, hoodies, sweaters and other apparel — plus various cool accessories and home items including buttons, phone cases (for many iPhone and Galaxy models), mugs, tote bags, notebooks, and of course face masks.
Check out this and our other gear in the Techdirt store on Threadless »
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: fire in a crowded theater, free speech
Reader Comments
The First Word
“The point is moot because there are no crowded movie theaters.
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Noice
Great, now we're making shirts that I have no choice but to buy....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Noice
That's the whole idea, Tim.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lood Gord. ANOTHER go-round on this false assertion.
Skip all your legalistic sophistries and show it in reality, kid: set up live video upload from another person, then YOU go into a crowded theater without advance notice and so on, in every way making a FALSE report as if real. -- We'll be able to enjoy you being hauled off to JAIL, likely for your own protection after the crowd beats you up, and even if loosed from criminal charge, the theater owner will have civil cause for lost revenue.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Lood Gord. ANOTHER go-round on this false assertion.
Okay? Then, go to it! You've got a RIGHT, exercise it or lose it!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lood Gord. ANOTHER go-round on this false assertion.
Skip all your legalistic sophistries and show it in reality, kid: set up live video upload from another person, then YOU go into a crowded theater without advance notice and so on, in every way making a FALSE report as if real. -- We'll be able to enjoy you being hauled off to JAIL, likely for your own protection after the crowd beats you up, and even if loosed from criminal charge, the theater owner will have civil cause for lost revenue.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Lood Gord. ANOTHER go-round on this false assertion.
At this point, just go away.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Lood Gord. ANOTHER go-round on this false assertion.
To clarify, the shirt is not false. You can yell fire in a crowded theatre. Is it a good idea to do so without reason? Probably not. But you could do so.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Never heard that quote
Never heard that quote. But yeah I would never say that it was fine for someone to shout "fire" in a crowded theatre, if the person they believed there was not a fire. I wouldn't say that was a freedom of speech argument, and we should all have the right to cause panic and piss people off in the name of "freedom of speech. Should the person shouting that be charged with something if they knowingly knew there was no fire, caused a panic and some guy got crushed and died in the panic? I don't know. For me it's the same level of stupidity as someone driving drunk a short distance on a quiet road, and happens to kill someone who runs across the road.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The point is moot because there are no crowded movie theaters.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]