Sean Parker Builds Beach-Access App To Atone For His Rule-Violating Wedding (wral.com)

An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press: A tech billionaire whose elaborate wedding in a redwood grove violated California rules has helped create a smartphone app that shows users a map of more than 1,500 spots where people can get to the coastline. The California Coastal Commission unveiled the YourCoast app at its meeting Thursday in Newport Beach. "This is an only in California story," Commission Chair Dayna Bochco said in a statement. "Where else could you find a tech mogul partnering with a regulator to help the public get to the beach?"

Sean Parker, co-founder of file-sharing service Napster, agreed to help make the educational tool after he built a large site resembling a movie set for his wedding in an ecologically sensitive area of Big Sur without proper permits. However, the commission determined the construction in a campground area wouldn't harm the environment and the wedding was allowed to proceed. Parker, a former president of Facebook, also paid $2.5 million in penalties, which helped fund hiking trails, field trips and other efforts to increase public access to the popular tourist area. It was a rare high-profile coastal violation case resolved with cooperation rather than a legal fight.

Comments

Another way to read the situation

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

If you ain't rich and you you can't fund the devlopment of an oops-sorry app, you don't get to have a nice wedding in a protected nature reserve. If you are, you do.

Somehow that story doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy...

Do as he says, not as he does

[DNS-and-BIND]

You break the law, you are heavily penalized. He breaks the law, he gets a sweetheart deal from the government, spends some chump change and laughs about it. We really are bifurcating into an aristocracy and commoners situation in America. And the aristocracy doesn't see any reason why they should be subject to the same laws as us deplorables.

Re:That's why we need rich people

[Anonymous Coward]

It may be an unpopular opinion but I think that allowing the rich to break some rules in exchange for making things better for others is a good thing.

This is not simply an unpopular opinion, it's an attack on democracy itself. You're harkening back to a day when some people were above the law. We tried this before, more than 200 years ago when the world was run by monarchy, and the rich WERE above the law. the rule of law says nobody is above the law.

I certainly don't want to go back to a monarchy, and a literal ruling class. Do you?

Oh, one more thing

[rsilvergun]

this is literally an app to help working class folks find beaches they could go to because by a rich guy who denied them access to said beaches...

It's a bit like having a fracking magnate list of all the places where it's safe to drink the water provided. Sure, it's nice to have and it's nice the fracker feels guilty for making your water flammable, but it'd be even nicer if the water wasn't made flammable in the first place....