NBC: audience recording

[Chas Winans]

The greatest difference between being "in public" walking down the street and "in public" as in a concert setting is that "in public" walking isn't generally done by a publicly recognized figure under contract to an individual or entity.  WITNESS: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie walk down the street in Beverly Hills, followed by a hundred paparazzi.  There's no contract, Pitt and Jolie are not performing and there is no legal remedy for them to keep the paparrazi from taking pictures of them.  
   
  If the police want to step in to break the crowd up using disturbing the peace or creating a public nuicense as a reason for doing so, that's up to them.  But photographers do have a legal right to congregate on the street unless it becomes life-threatening or dangerous to others.  
   
  However, if a photographer sneaks up to Brad & Angelina's bathroom window and takes pictures of them through that window, it's against the law on the grounds of several different trespassing and invasion of privacy statutes.  
   
  A public figure is a public figure.  When they go out in public, they're going to get photographed.  That goes if they're on the stage or just walking down the street.  Joan Armatrading can probably walk down the street anonymously, and won't be bothered by the paparazzi.  Angelina Jolie isn't as anonymous.  
   
  The "rules" about photographers that apply in a concert setting can be enforced based on what's in the contract, but are generally enforcable only to working press - professionals with access.  If I was all hot to take pictures of Joan Armatrading on stage, and I knew I wasn't going to be allowed to do so as a member of the working press, I go out in the crowd, where cameras are abundant and audience members can't be controlled, slap a fast 400MM zoom lens on my camera and take head shots -  high quality ones - of Joan Armatrading from 100 yards away.  
   
  The days of placing a high-quality recording device in our pockets is no that far away.  
   
  Chuck
   
  

Walter Potter <maxdog-blues-l@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
  -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: 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. 

I think there is a difference between being "in public" as in walking down the street and being in a in a contained atmosphere such as a concert. A concert is a "public" event but can have rules that don't apply on the street.

> 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". 

That was my original point in this thread. Devices that record images, sound and/or video are just too commonplace now to try and control them. The divisions between still cameras, video cameras and sound recorders are starting to blur, at least on a non-professional quality level. Hand held devices like cell phones and PDAs are entering the mix as well. Hell, there are wristwatches with low quality cameras and voice recorders in them, how long before the quality gets up to a level that is acceptable to the YouTube audience? 

The audio recorder I bought fits into my shirt pocket (search the web for Zoom H2 or Edirol R-09). I does not produce professional level recordings but it doesn't do a bad job either.
--
Walter

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