----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Maxey" >>>here's a nice one for you - you make a print of a kid playing down the beach for some parent and it turns up in some paedophiles collection - guess what? At least under new laws here in Oz, you'd be guilty of child sex offences!>>> :Are you talking about some form of computer manipulation of the image you made for some parent by the pedophile? I am confused, so please clarify if I missed your point. If it is an innocent photograph, what do you have to worry about? If the picture is not so innocent, you deserve what you get. If the pedophile took the image you made and manipulated it, this can be proven. You can be investigated, as can the pedophile. Try this one - you take a picture of a kid (innocent) and it is completely harmless, yet some weirdo illegally takes it from your website and puts it on their illegal child pron site - YOU (in Oz) have committed an offense - a child sex crime and you can be prosecuted for it! Thats our law now. nice, huh.. not! The lawmakers have decided that intent is immaterial, your image (by association) is illegal and thus you're responsible for it. Sure if you had the right lawyers and enough dosh you'd be able to brawl your way out of it, maybe, but it's a farcical knee-jerk attempt to make photographers responsible for restricting image access. We do not suffer those problems in the US of A. no? I have heard of many executed 'criminals' being found innocent after the fact by DNA evidence in the USA. :I do not know where Oz is exactly, but I take it you do not live in the United States. In the US, if you are innocent, you will likely be cleared. And get a big time book deal. It's a stupid country below the equator that generates many of the brilliant advancements of the modern day (we built the wind tunnel that nasa couldn't, so they could test the shuttle etc) but our system has become americanised and the old statutory laws of protection are being eroded as we become more litigeous. >>>Bye-bye computer, printer, cameras. And you don't get them back even if you're found not guilty - and you'll have to rights to own such things stripped from you.>>> Again, I am not sure where you live. Australia >>>Took a pic of a plane? A copy of a torn up print is found in the garbage.. the plane went down months later under suspicious circumstances - 'Gentlemen, we have a suspect!'>>> :What would you expect the officials to do for God’s sake? Are you suggesting you should not be investigated in some clues pointed to you? Give me a break. See my comment about the plane. The WTC was photographed by thousands of people and not much individual investigation of the average Joe. Unless other clues pointed their way. But at least one of the suspects (the perpetrators) who flew the plane into the building was found months later to be on the other side of the world at the time, contrary to the images of him passing customs that were presented to the public would suggest - methinks the crime fightin' authorities might have made a mistake. >>>A nice example occurred here some time back - all measuring devices in Oz are required to be calibrated and signed off by a government department referred to as Weights and Measures. An individual who worked for this department contested a speed camera ticket and queried when the camera had last been checked. It hadn't - it had never been checked, and under the law of the day the device could NOT be considered lawfully accurate. A few weeks down the track we have a new law (retrospective of course) saying that speed cameras are the ONE ITEM in Oz that measures something that does not need to be calibrated. Nice.>>> :Not so sure what that has to do with the thread. Lots of places have lots of rules about this and that and I doubt the maintenance is always perfect. Here in Utah, all radar guns must be calibrated and I doubt that always happens. The police are required by law to calibrate the device in the presence of the person getting the ticket. it's an example of how governments can and do protect themselves after they've made a mistake - :As I said before, the thread scared people unnecessarily. The article on the web site said the printers could show our location. Absolutely false. If ALL printer manufacturers announced that EVERY model will embed information in the print, it would matter not one bloody hell to most of us who do not break the law. Those that do will find a hack or another way to deal with the dots. ah, law breakers are the only ones who need to fear the law. There are more than a few harrowing tales that suggest otherwise circulating in many western societies. >>>There's a new law being proposed here in Oz at the moment, police are to have the power to 'shoot to kill' any *suspected* terrorist who may be running from them. We are not an armed country like the US, and police shooting are rare, but this will mean the law will grant police the right to kill people who are merely suspected of something - effectively they would be lawful government executioners!>>> And you automatically assume police will start shooting people for sport? I seriously doubt that. But, again, I do not know where you live. If it does happen, you problem is not the police; it is those that voted for the law. Not to mention, the lack of morality of the PD. no, but at the moment an innocent person can't be shot without someone being charged with murder. Laws are passed by politicians here, we don't get to vote on that - we just vote the madmen in and after that they pretty much do as they please. The innocent Brazillian tourist who was executed at point blank range while lying on the ground in the UK was running for a train. I'm not what action the government has taken over that, but if he isn't charged it sends a message to the police that they ARE entitled to act rashly. They might have second thoughts if a prosecution follows.. k
