Your thoughts? Person taking photos/video of audience at an event
Public event, so I don't think there's any law against taking pics. Only becomes problematic if photographer is trying to profit off sales of your image. At least, that's my understanding of the law, but I'm not a lawyer.
At a public event, the legal expectation of privacy is minimal. You can be filmed or photographed, and those images can be used for most private, non comercial purposes without a release. They can also be published as reportage, on line, on tv, or in a paper or magazine. This has been the case in the US for decades.
My personal take is that, if she is not a reporter, I would hope she would chose to experience the moment first hand, rather than through the lens of her phone, but as long as photography has existed there have been people who feel the need to record their life.
Our oldest Kibbeboy is an up and coming photographer. He is in the habit of asking people on the street / in public is it okay to take their photo if he finds someone interesting and wants to do a "portrait" type shot. If he is just clicking away and people happen to be in his shot, it's fair game.
Expectation of Privacy is the legal term. While IANAL, I am a photographer. What Max said is correct. You're at an event - open to the public, there's not much you can do unless the person sells the footage/image. Practical terms - it's the world we live in.
I seriously doubt that this person was the only one recording the event on a phone. There were probably many.
ska said:
I seriously doubt that this person was the only one recording the event on a phone. There were probably many.
I was there sitting close to the back, and I was surprised at the lack of people on their phones recording for their social media feeds. Thought it had more to do with the choice of event and what we were there for.
But as others have said public space, though there is always this,
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/07/05/483110284/lock-screen-at-these-music-shows-phones-go-in-a-pouch-and-dont-come-out
Thanks for the responses. I know that it is legal and that I have no expectation of privacy. I was interested if others thought it was appropriate at a moment of community participation.
Like prerak77 I was pleased to observe that most of the audience was there to participate. Some people took photos/videos of the presenters/performers, but not many.
I'm always bemused by people who are so busy "documenting" their lives that they forget to live.
how do you know they forgot to live? How do you know the reasons why they were documenting? Sick parent at home missing it, elderly relative it would have special meaning for couldn't attend, so many reasons.
I have a different twist on this. I was at a school event the other night at a roller rink. The kids were having fun, and I was at a table chatting with a friend. A photographer was there working away. He came over to us and I asked him not to take my picture. He accused me of not wanting to be photographed with my friend, and took a few photos anyway. The irony is that my friend is a photographer, and he said when someone asks him not to photograph them, he puts his camera down. Basic courtesy.
Respectfully, I think it's a little harsh to suggest that this person is "forgetting to live." I take a lot of photos, as I like to look back and remember events and travels, even if they are relatively minor. I also have an elderly mother who can't really get out much, so she enjoys seeing photos and videos, even if it's just a dog walking in the neighborhood, or a nice blooming tree. It's possible that the situation described above had a similar purpose.
I usually don't care if someone takes my picture, but I'm weird about pictures taken of my child. For example, if I attend an event and a picture is taken that has my kid in it, which will happen she's only 3, I'm fine as long as it's for their own personal archive of the event. However, if it ends up on FB or Instagram I ask for it to be removed. I'm super paranoid, I don't trust privacy settings to protect how those pictures are used once they're online. Most people are very understanding when I explain that I don't mind if it's my picture but to leave the kid out of it. I know it's weird but I can't help it, the interwebs is a scary place.
ElizMcCord said:
I usually don't care if someone takes my picture, but I'm weird about pictures taken of my child. For example, if I attend an event and a picture is taken that has my kid in it, which will happen she's only 3, I'm fine as long as it's for their own personal archive of the event. However, if it ends up on FB or Instagram I ask for it to be removed. I'm super paranoid, I don't trust privacy settings to protect how those pictures are used once they're online. Most people are very understanding when I explain that I don't mind if it's my picture but to leave the kid out of it. I know it's weird but I can't help it, the interwebs is a scary place.
I feel the same way. I think it's creepy when "official" photographers want to take my kids' pictures at resorts or in amusement parks, then they want you to buy the photos. I feel like you never know where those photos will end up. I never allow it.
Even though there was an official videographer and the event has been posted online in the past, I'm going to think positively and believe that this woman was documenting the event for someone who could not attend. Thanks for the perspective.
To ElizMcCord's point, I remembered reading this article on posting photographs of kids:
I know it's been discussed before but the digitizing of photographs and the ubiquity of smartphones has totally upended notions of keeping photographs private. We don't regularly post photos of our child (or anyone's) online. Removing identifiers and location from photographs is also something we do ... whenever we get a new Smartphone we make sure location tagging is off for photographs.
In some ways the genie is out of the bottle. It's a tremendous convenience to have a high quality camera along with me at all times. And then distribute a great photo easily. But maybe it's not a bad idea to reflect a little bit on what you're doing with digital photos before sharing them.
And on the "missing life" argument I get it. I regularly video my daughter's choir performances to share with family that can't attend. Plus sometimes she loves to watch them herself later. I think many of us treasure old family photos and home movies ... someone was behind the camera for all of those.
I don't have a problem with someone taking my picture at a public event, especially since this is apt to be part of a crowd shot with many others in the picture as well. What I do not like are persons seated in front of me raising their arms to get a better camera angle when recording an event and thus blocking my own view of the event in the process. When upwards of half the audience does this, it is especially distracting.
I know that I am a very private person so I wanted someone else's thoughts on this. My family attended the annual MLK celebration at CHS today. Thanks to the Community Coalition on Race for organizing another great event.
While we were singing "We shall overcome" an older woman took her smartphone and started to video the audience. Although I agree that it was a moving to see our wonderful SOMA community united in song, it seemed inappropriate. One - shouldn't she be participating? Two - what is she planning to do with the video? If I were one of the parents I would also have been annoyed - who wants a stranger photographing their kids?
I wasn't going to drop hands and stop singing to ask her to stop. Afterwards I lost her in the crowd.
Thoughts?