Today, the NBC Today Show had another brief
conversation (with Bob Hansen) showing concern over the taking of pictures of
people even in public places. This
seemed to be new coverage (I see that NBC had discussed it March 31, 2014). It was said that it seems inconsistent that
you can’t record people’s conversations without consent but that you can photo them,
and that many people don’t appreciate what can be done with images in the
digital age.
NBC didn’t have a link yet on this discussion, but
the ACLU has a very useful guide (“Know your rights”0 here and notes that in some states (like
Pennsylvania) recording of voices without permission even in public is
illegal. The New York Times has a
compelling column by James Estrin from August 2012 “criminalizing photography”,
here. It seems that in some cases police stop
photography even when it is legal, and that there are cases where the
established press is not allowed to phorograph but amateurs are (not what you
would expect).
Property owners can always prohibit photography on
the premises. A few bars do this, as I’ve
covered on the LGBT blog. Most
businesses won’t allow photography of employees at work. Some prohibit “commercial” photography, as
evidenced by tripods or large equipment, but such a distinction seems weaker as
cameras become miniaturized on smart phones.
Would republication of a photo (like from a sports event) on a blog that
accepts ads legally constitute commercial use?
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