credit: Marc Vallee, photojournalist.
The explosion of digital cameras in the hands of ‘amateurs’, particularly since the advent of HD video in cell phones has caused a lot of changes, and a lot of consternation – particularly among law enforcement officials.
Yesterday, we posted the story of a motorcyclist facing 16 years for videotaping his own encounter with a gun waving plain clothesman.
Today, we’re publishing a very good study of exactly what your rights are to film in public places, and you may be surprised.
Popular Mechanics of all places, has published a complete instruction manual on where you can shoot in public places.
You may be surprised to learn (I certainly was), that you are allowed to take photos in pretty much any public place, so long as you are not disturbing a police activity.
As Bert Krages, an attorney who specializes in photography-related legal problems and wrote Legal Handbook for Photographers, says, “The general rule is that if something is in a public place, you’re entitled to photograph it.” What’s more, though national-security laws are often invoked when quashing photographers, Krages explains that “the Patriot Act does not restrict photography; neither does the Homeland Security Act.” But this doesn’t stop people from interfering with photographers, even in settings that don’t seem much like national-security zones.
Krages, and Popular Mechanics point out that many security people may be unaware of what the letter of the law actually is.
And it appears to be fairly clear.
You have the right to photograph in any public place.
(Be sure it’s a public place. Shopping Malls, for example, are private places).
There are also apparently, no provisions in The Patriot Act about photographic prohibitions.
Krages also says never to let the security people either seize your ‘film’ or delete what you have shot.
As more and more of us take to the streets with our gear, it is increasingly important that we know the law and be well informed on it.
But even professionals can run into problems as this recent thread in b-roll.net points up.
You may be surprised to learn
2 Comments
Nino July 23, 2010
Hey Michael, whatever happened to the Travel Channel Academy and all the TJ videos?
TC (not TJ) was always one my favorite channel and suddenly no more ads for the TCA. It disappeared in thin air from your blog and from the travel channel including all the TCA graduates submitted videos without you or anyone else anyone a single word.
Weren’t all those aspiring TJ that paid $2500 to be trained by you and the TC supposed to be the future of the travel channel and the travel industry?
Michael Rosenblum July 23, 2010
The Travel Channel was sold to Scripps, who decided that they did not want to continue with the Travel Channel Academy, although they will continue to support the grads and purchase their work. As our non-compete with Travel Channel expired, we were able to expand the model to other broadcasters. You can now sign up for The Guardian Media Academy (https://guardianmediaacademy.com/), WEtv Film Academy (http://www.wetv.com/film-academy/index.html) and several others soon to be launched. We are just a few weeks (and in some cases) days away from launching them as well, so stand by and glad you are following the progress of the concept! If all goes well, there will be 6 of them up and running by the fall! Past graduates of TCA will also be able to have access to execs from Guardian, WEtv and others as they come on board to offer their work as well, so it’s an ever-expanding family of networks.
Oops, nearly forgot! And as you are in Florida, this will be interesting for you. We have made a deal with Crystal Cruises. We ran a pilot with them last year on their 108 day Around the World Cruise and took our training on board. In November we’re going to be running a 2-week video training seminar theme cruise in the Caribbean. Should be posting in a few weeks as well. Sign up now!