NBC: audience recording

[Chas Winans]

I woouldn't say that the public has a "right" to take pictures of a public figure just because they're out in public.  I mean, there is no law stating such, and no clause in any state constitution saying as much.  
   
  However, there is nothing illegal about it, either.  This is one of the reasons why artists and their management sometimes try to control photographers and videographers by placing express clauses in their contract riders that no videotaping and/or photography is allowed at any given show.
   
  Realistically, though, an artist on stage cannot any more avoid being photographed or videotaped than they can avoid breathing when they are on stage.  There are too many people with cameras, too many people in the crowd to try to "police".  And I do believe it's mostly the people in the crowd who are attempting to get "bootleg" video to post on sites like YouTube.  
   
  Even artists like the late Robert Lockwood and the late Gatemouth Brown tried for years, and as hard as they could, to police photographers.  But they couldn't.  Both eventually had to acquiese to still photographers eventually -- especially at large festivals, where I rarely heard either of them complain about it (at least out in the open).  Video,on the other hand, was something both of them steadfastly refused to allow much of the time, unless they'd agreed to it by contract beforehand.  
   
  I covered numerous festivals when both Lockwood and Gate were on the bill, and watched them stop in the middle of shows to berate people with video cameras.  But neither ever hollered at me to stop shooting still pictures unless it was getting cumbersome.  It was well-known that Gate amongst most music media that he had cataracts, and flashes from cameras bothered him.  
   
  Chuck

Blue Stew <mail@bluestew.com> wrote:
  That just doesn't seem legal. I've heard that if a public figure is out 
in public, the public has the right to take their pic. Just as long as 
it doesn't endanger them or anyone else.
mike

Terry Odor wrote:
> What drives me crazy are the artists at big festivals that announce
> just before they go on that there be no photographs ... and there are 10,000 + people smashed against the stage with digital camera's, cell phone cameras, hand held recorders, etc ... totally unenforcable. Joan Armatrading (or her mgmt) did this at the Waterfront Blues Festival this last summer and then her road mgr stood in the photo pit yelling at people in the audience to stop photographing Joan ... totally distracted from the show and, yes, she got her share of fingers flipped at her, followed by more flashbulbs.> Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:13:51 +0000> From: maxdog-blues-l@COMCAST.NET> Su
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