Village of Westbury, NY Handbills

It shall be unlawful for any person to throw, cast, place or distribute, or cause or permit to be thrown, cast, placed or distributed, any commercial handbill, circular, card, booklet or other similar commercial or advertising matter or publication whatsoever upon any places in or upon any public place or in or upon any part of private property or dwelling or in any letterbox or receptacle on said premises unless the name and address of the distributor thereof are clearly and boldly printed thereon and unless duly permitted by the owners or parties in possession of the properties thereof; provided that nothing herein contained shall be deemed to prohibit the distribution of such matter by the United States Postal Service, or prohibit the distribution of sample copies of newspapers regularly sold by the copy or the annual subscription. This section is not intended to prevent the lawful distribution of anything other than commercial or business matters or material.

Definitions. For the purpose of this chapter, the terms used herein are defined as follows:

COMMERCIAL HANDBILL

Any printed or written matter, any sample or device, dodger, circular, leaflet, pamphlet, paper, booklet, or any other printed or otherwise reproduced original or copies of any matter or literature which:

(1)

Advertises for sale any merchandise, product, commodity or thing;

(2)

Advertises for the employment of any service;

(3)

Directs attention to any business or mercantile or commercial establishment, or other activity, for the purpose of either directly or indirectly promoting the interests thereof by sales or employment;

(4)

Directs attention to or advertises any meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition or event of any kind for which an admission fee is charged for the purpose of private gain or profit; but the terms of this clause shall not apply where an admission fee is charged or a collection is taken up for the purpose of defraying the expenses incident to such meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition or event of any kind, when either of the same is held, given or taken place in connection with the dissemination of information which is not restricted under the ordinary rules of decency, good morals, public peace, safety and good order; provided that nothing contained in this clause shall be deemed to authorize the holding, giving or taking place of any meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition or event of any kind, without a license, where such license is or may be required by any law of the state or under any ordinance of this municipality; or

(5)

While containing reading matter other than advertising matter, is distributed or circulated for advertisement purposes, or for the private benefit and gain of any person so engaged as advertiser or distributor.

DISTRIBUTOR

Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind who actually delivers or causes the delivery of any commercial handbill as herein defined.

HANDBILL DISTRIBUTOR

Any person engaging or engaged in the business for hire or gain of distributing commercial or noncommercial handbills, other than newspapers distributed to subscribers thereof, and any person receiving compensation directly or indirectly for the distribution of such handbills.

NEWSPAPER

Any newspaper of general circulation as defined by general law, any newspaper duly entered with the Post Office Department of the United States in accordance with federal statute or regulation, and any newspaper filed and recorded with any recording officer as provided by general law; and, in addition thereto, shall mean and include any periodical or current magazine regularly published with not less than four issues per year, and sold to the public.

PERMITTED

Recognizable acquiescence of the owner's or lessee's approval prior to the distribution of commercial handbills.

PERSON

Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind.

PRIVATE PREMISES

Any dwelling, house, building or other structure designed or used either wholly or in part for private residential purposes, whether inhabited or temporarily or continuously uninhabited or vacant, and shall include any yard, grounds, walk, driveway, porch, steps, vestibule or mailbox belonging or appurtenant to such dwelling, house, building or other structure.

PUBLIC PLACES

Any and all streets, boulevards, avenues, lanes, alleys or other public ways and any and all public parks, squares, spaces, plazas, grounds and buildings.

Word usage. Words singular in form may include the plural, and any words plural in form may include the singular; words in the masculine gender shall include the feminine and neuter genders.