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shawn, take note now that you're moving

an editorial on camera policies in privately owned public spaces

read the whole thing and then check out the list of policies for venues and businesses around san francisco. (link via xblog, but i think i saw something about the sbc park/sf giants policy yesterday or the day before)

Comments

This has been an issue long before the advent of the Everybody is a Photographer phase of civilization. *Contrary to my seemingly annoyed tone, I think it's great, I'm only annoyed when people are misinformed. Like this guy. He's calling it "privately owned public space" but it's not that at all, it's "private property." I learned in my media law classes that this has been contested often but the businesses are almost always sided with by the courts (I'd say "always" but I'm no expert, I keep getting rejected by law school to study media law ;). Anyway, it's been an issue in the past when people are doing stuff like soliciting customers in a mall, getting in trouble, and claiming it's "public." It's not. It's PRIVATE. Someone owns that space, just b/c a buttload of people go there doesn't make it public. And thank fucking god that's upheld or you would have photographers in your shower with you, they're EVERYWHERE ;)

Not that I don't break the rules; I'm proud to have snuck throw-away cameras in my underwear into tightass no-camera security concerts recently including: Bruce, Justin Timberlake, and Radiohead. No one at the recent D12 concert gave an F and I think Bizarre was even posing for me :) But if someone had confiscated my camera (and I saw many taken at all of these concerts except D12), I'd have not one leg to stand on and I know that.

Shit, I just read every entry on that page and it kinda made me want to scratch my eyes out. I'm with the poster that said:

Quit whining! 'Oh, pity poor me, I can't annoy people and take away their privacy with my obssession to DOCUMENT EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF MY INSIGNIFICANT LIFE!!' Get over it....

The bitching about the museums are the worst. Why should a museum or an artist give access to someone to be able to create 'large file images'? This Thomas Hawk guy bitches and moans that there's some small files on the SFMoMa's website but they're not big enough? Tough shit. As an artist, maybe I want my intellectual property protected. Just a thought, huh? I'm sure he'd feel differently about people taking pics of his work if it were in the MoMa. Quit the whining! BTW, again, it's NOT public. As its website states: "The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a private, not-for-profit institution." Take pics in museums where you're allowed (there are many) and don't cry about the ones that don't let you.

Holy shit! It's September 1st already?!?!?

thanks for your thoughts on the subject claire. i hadn't thought of the "private vs. public" aspect of things. and things will get interesting as fewer and fewer photos and videos are taken for only private consumption.