Alberto Tirado:
In my opinion and first-hand experiences, the big problem with the
criminalization of photography is that photographers have accepted
passively this situation. I have been stopped (apparently for fears of
pedophilia) and taken to a judge, to whom I argued pretty vehemently while
my companion photographer told me to cool down and forget the whole issue
(we were eventually let go).
glad to hear you escaped the wrath of ignorance !
Bloggers write, sometimes journalists touch the subject, but no real
effort is ever done by photographers to revert the increasing perception
that photography is somehow connected to crime. When I have tried to
involve others, including this forum, I have been left with the
impression that I am somehow doing something wrong or not worth the
trouble, as if it was only my personal problem. I have yet to untap the
power of the Internet ;)
A guy called WInston Churchill said once "If you have ten thousand
regulations you destroy all respect for the law"
We also have a legal precedent that ignorance is no excuse of the law.
And while it would be nice if governments sat back, ran the business of the
country and let us all get on with our lives, sadly, many governments
measure their success by the number of laws they introduce - One law
article I read suggested it was unknown how many laws there were in the US..
that no one could put an actual number on them all. So back to Churchill's
statement. How can anyone possibly be expected to know all the laws , or
rather be reasonably expected NOT to be ignorant of some laws when the
lawmakers themselves have no idea about all the laws?!
Another thing that irks me is the criminalization of copyright laws. Copying
DVD's, music etc and onselling them to consumers used to constitute piracy.
Now the laws seem to suggest the recipient of such copying or sharing is a
'pirate' - and then somehow this changed from being a legal issue between
the 'pirate' and the offended company and it brcame a criminal activity..
how did THAT happen? - I know I'm wandering off the track here but it all
just gets me angry. especially when you know that these offended companies
have employed other companies to do the 'illegal' uploading (that the .. !?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography_and_the_law is an interesting read.
But you are right, people have to voice dissent when they feel something is
unjust.
We let them, and so things are.
and so rose the nazi's and the even more grotesque stasi - and who will
history record as next in line?
k
