Thursday, April 3, 2008

You gotta fight, for your right....

Ok, Beastie Boy references asideI’ve seen it quite a bit in the news recently where photographers are being harassed or even threatened for taking completely legal pictures. It seems odd to consider what is and what is not legal to shoot, but I must admit I had no clue myself exactly what is and what is not legal. So, I did a little digging and found the below site where you can print out a copy of exactly what your rights are. I’m keeping a copy in my bag from now on.

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3 comments:

Unknown said...

I wonder what the law would say about thermal imaging photography?

I might say you could see people through the walls of their home or office, yet it is their heat signature which is being sent through the walls into public space- so is it an intrusion if a police officer uses this technology to look at you in your home?

What about someone using this technology to photograph law enforcement officers through the walls of their police station?
-DG

Unknown said...

As an update to my above comment, it appears you do not want to mess around with thermal imaging when international relations are involved:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AIRPORT_ARRESTS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

byrononeal said...

Can't say I'm surprised that happened. Thanks for the article. Clearly, they were up to something with that much gear.

I was giving myself some time to think about your initial comment and what I wanted to say in response. I guess I don't think comparing photographic cameras and thermal imaging devices as apples to apples. That being said, any technology used to basically spy on someone I have problems with whether that is a mini cam, thermal scan, microphone, whatever. Hopefully, the rest of our elected government officials will check the executive branch on this illegal wiretapping issue currently in the news. Surveillance of that nature should always require a warrant or go through some form of judicial review process. As for the companies that were compliant, I don't really think it's their fault but a precedent must be made.

So, I think it's wrong in either case to use thermal scanning to monitor private citizens without a warrant or to in turn monitor a police station.

My two cents anyway.
B