Free Speech issues on Social Media...and Free Speech issues from Video Tombstones

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Dec. 1, 2014 - PRLog -- The Supreme Court is currently hearing a case about Free Speech issues regarding posts on Facebook.

Imagine the Free Speech issues that will arise "from beyond the grave" when Video Tombstones start appearing in cemeteries on a regular basis!

I am the inventor of a video tombstone called the Video Enhanced Gravemarker. (U.S. Patent #7,089,495) www.barrows.com/invention.html

Video tombstones will have a tremendous impact on many aspects of society and they will also create some fascinating free speech issues.

Here are some of the Free Speech issues:

1) What if someone confesses to a crime or makes an incrimination?

2) What if they say something slanderous?

3) What if they say something hurtful and cause emotional stress?

4) What if they say something anti-governmental?

5) Do the dead have free speech rights, too?

6) And what can you do if they say something that is true or untrue or not so nice about you?

7) How can you pull the plug, and whom can you sue?
Worse yet, how can you collect?

Generally, cemeteries have the right of refusal over what kind of tombstones can go into their cemetery, and they also have the right of censorship regarding what can be said in an inscription on a tombstone. It is quite possible that censorship of video tombstone messages may develop into first amendment lawsuits that might go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Video Tombstones will also have a tremendous impact on many aspects of society:

Here are some of the social implications:

1) Video Tombstones will change the way we look at life and death.

When you start recording your own obituary while you are still alive, it will force you to examine things about your life that you may not even have considered before.

2) Video Tombstones will change the way that history is told.

Now you will be able to go to video tombstones and get the story from the people themselves. (Of course, it will indeed be their side of the story, and depending on what they say, and how they view things, that may also create some interesting controversies.)

3) The advent of the video tombstone may also create changes in estate law so that people may have to specify that  yes, they do want a video tombstone, or no they do not want a video tombstone. (The late Jeff Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal covered this angle of the invention in his April 7, 2005 Moving On column.)

If the person doesn’t make a video prior to death,  or if they don’t specify who may make a video and what people can say in a posthumous video,

will survivors be able to to make a video to be played in their tombstone, and will

there be limits on the content of the messages?

4) Video Tombstones will also create a whole new genre of storytelling...with all kinds of stories that may be told through video tombstones.

The video tombstone is an incredible storytelling device that is likely to inspire countless tales that will be told through video tombstones.

The video tombstone is an ideal storytelling device for everything from horror movies to love stories to historical pieces, and it is perfect for all kinds of literary, film and television projects.

While I was working on the patent application, I also wrote a novel

called “Cemetery of Lies.” Cemetery of Lies is a collection of intimate secret confessions, as told from beyond the grave, through video tombstones. The stories are about life and love, sex and romance, good and evil, success and money, truth and lies and Heaven and Hell, with insights and advice about almost every aspect of our lives.

What kinds of secrets would you divulge for playback (or payback) after you

are gone? And if you knew you were going to die today, what kinds of things would you say for your own video tombstone?  That is what

Cemetery of Lies is about, and it is an easy read for a mass audience, and the writing is sexy, provocative and humorous, too.

Publishers, literary agents and producers interested in taking a look at

Cemetery of Lies may request a copy of the manuscript by contacting Robert Barrows at R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising and Public Relations in San Mateo, California at 650-344-4405.

5) In addition, the advent of the Video Tombstone will also create two new industries:

      A) Manufacturing Video tombstones, and

      B) producing content for use in video tombstones

6) Video Tombstones will also make cemeteries fascinating places to visit because who knows what kinds of juicy stories might be entombed in the

video tombstones of both celebrities and ordinary people? And who knows who was doing what with whom? Perhaps we shall find out from their video tombstone?

7) Video tombstones will also create some major new revenue opportunities for many sectors of the funerary industry including monument builders, funeral homes, perpetual care fund providers and cemeteries.

Companies that would be interested in acquiring the rights to manufacture or market the Video Enhanced Gravemarker should contact Robert Barrows at R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising and Public Relations in San Mateo, California.

Likewise, companies that would be interested in becoming suppliers of some of the weatherproofed electronic equipment that can be housed in the video tombstone should contact Barrows as well.

The Video Enhanced Gravemarker was invented by Robert Barrows and

the patent has been assigned to R.M. Barrows, Inc.

     Realizing the ghoulish implications of the video tombstone, I

filed the patent application on the Video Enhanced Gravemarker on Halloween in 2002.

The patent (U.S. Patent #7,089,495) was issued on August 8, 2006.

To find out more about the Video Enhanced Gravemarker and Cemetery of Lies,  contact Robert Barrows at R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising and Public Relations in San Mateo, California at 650-344-4405.