Hogwash! You may do anything you please on public property so long as you do not infringe on anyone else's rights (or public norms of behavior - no peeing on the bush in the public park), or on your own property or on any private property with permission of the owner. Being free means you have to allow others to be free (lest the things you like to do that really harm no one be banned also!) As to photos, take them anywhere you like of anyone you like where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. Take them with anything you want. The idea that a law could be passed whose unintended consequence might be to require me to obtain the permission of all the folks in the background of a photo I took of my grandchildren is an abomination! Any law that would, though unintended, prevent me from photographing the aftermath of a traffic accident I get caught in, including the other driver who is moving about just fine before he sees an attorney to determine the extent of his "injuries" is dangerous. If someone is actually harmed, as opposed to being on a control trip, they can get an attorney to sue for civil compensation. That's where this stuff belongs if it has merit - civil courts. Regards, Bob... > > Sadly, the very nature of democracy and lawmaking means some laws must > be made that have the potential to block or prohibit both the good and > the bad. There are far too many dangerous sods out there who would > abuse the camera phones. That is why fitness facilities have banned > them from their locker and pool areas to avoid what amounts to an > assault by the camera phone user who takes the picture and spreads it > about, likely with sexually oriented fiddling, without permission or > consent. It has handed child sexual predators a whole new weapon to use > hunting children. > > If it takes a legal smack up the side of the head to remind people of > their responsibility to others then so be it. Too many people have > forgotten that the only place you have a right to do as you please, > when you please is when you live alone on a rock in the middle of > nowhere. > So much for my soap box thought. It was kindly meant...
