Two small hopefully illustrative vignettes: a. The town where I now live has a park on a small knoll which overlooks the cooling pond for a power generation plant; also spread out for view is a portion of Dow Chemical's home facilities (offices, processing, etc.) http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=43.589344,-84.245996&hl=en&ll=43.590649,-84.245911&spn=0.050043,0.076475&sll=43.594752,-84.221191&sspn=0.05004,0.076475&vpsrc=6&mra=mift&mrsp=1&sz=14&t=m&z=14 The park is officially named, logically enough, Overlook Park. A road leads to a small parking area on top of the knoll; the whole place is a favorite for teens with no place to go, for families looking for a small hill to sled when there is snow, etc. Many varied birds in the pond at some times of the year. All in all, a good spot for photography. Two-three times each month the local newspaper notes, in their Crime column, that the police were called to investigate reports of someone taking photographs from Overlook Park. Of course there is no reason they shouldn't, but paranoid busybodies will call 911 and complain. b. I was wandering through a small fair, taking photos mostly of other fairgoers on the rides, at the shooting galleries, etc. One father objected because I had aimed my camera in the general direction of his daughter. I have o idea what his issue was. He didn't look like one of those natives from remote regions who believe that a camera will steal your soul.
So, short analysis of these two vignettes: in the U.S. you are permitted to use your camera in most public places, but many members of the public don't know that. Long ago (mid 1960's) a research project involving attitude formation and change asked a number of people in the mid-west to answer a series of questions. One was "do you support the constitutional right to free speech?", another was "do think that a communist should be allowed to speak in the town square?" A high proportion agree with the first, a high proportion disagreed with the second. stan On Nov 29, 2011, at 1:06 PM, Thibouille wrote: > The teacher asked to do some work about a legal issue concerning legal > rights of photographs use. > As he showed us a couple short movies on the topic and because I > believe that street shooting is indeed a fundamental of photography, > I'd like to know: > > * the status of street shooting in your country, both on a legal and a > practical point of view (I know that often things are permitted but > some zealot thinks you shouldn't be allowed to no matter what the law > is) ? > * did the status of street shooting in your country change in recent > years (I'd say recent being last 15 years till today) ? > * would you say there's a tendency to restrict photographer's rights > in your country and why/how ? > > > This doesn't need to be huge answers, really. But if you have any > legal reference in your mind, please do so :) > > I just can't check legal status in 30 different countries myself, but > I'm very interested (and somewhat concerned) about this. > > Thank you for your cooperation :) > > -- > Thibault Massart aka Thibouille/Thibs > ---------------------- > Photo: K-7, Sigma 28/1.8 macro, FA50/1.4, DA40Ltd, K30/2.8, DA16-45, > DA50-135, DA50-200, 360FGZ > KX, MX, SuperA+Motor, Z1, P30 > Mamiya C330+80/2.8 > Sekonic L-208 > FalconEyes TE300D x2 Studio flashes > > Laptop: Macbook 13" Unibody SnowLeo/Win7 > > Programing: Delphi 2009 > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
