----- Original Message -----
From: "Malcolm Smith"
Subject: RE: Lens length
Case or excuse, one or tother.
To be fair if the venue is privately owned, the venue owner
can prtty much
make up whatever rules he wants regarding this, and the
ticket buyer can
accept or go home.
Indeed they can, but it isn't just venues such as this that are either
trying to limit or ban photography. Some tourist attractions now charge
photographers, and given that the vast majority of them won't take either
anything that hasn't been in magazines or television many times over or
anything like the quality of those images, it's amount to a camera tax. If
you smoke as well, you'll probably get shot.
I would venture that if that tourist attraction is publicly owned (a
national park for example), a camera tax (I agree with your wording) is
probably illegal (at least under common law.
Unfortunately, that means nothing.
If you want to take pictures, you pay the tax, then, if the principle means
enough to you, you go to the expense of suing to get your illegally taken
money back.
Probably spending a few thousand dollars more in the process, to get a few
dollars back.
If people have to pay for their rights in that fashion, most will just opt
to let their rights be trampled on.
Sadly, this is one of the methods governments use to chip away at your
freedom.
William Robb
