

Photographers Can Be Detained If Their Photos Have 'No Apparent Esthetic Value' - uptown
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110815/23584515540/police-say-they-can-detain-photographers-if-their-photographs-have-no-apparent-esthetic-value.shtml

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ColinWright
You might be interested in the discussion from 2 days ago:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2884072>

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swatthatfly
I think this piece is fluff. According to the original article, the story
unfolded a bit differently. A suspicious cop with no 'Aesthetic Values' asked
a photographer for his license. This not being Nazi Germany, the photographer
was offended and talked back, then later publicly complained. He was not
detained as in hauled to a police station, but rather not allowed to leave
before the policeman assessed why he was taking photos in a refinery. The cop
did his job and the journalist his. No story here, other than the cop trying
to be a bully and threaten to use terrorism charges if he feels like it. This
is business as usual it seems anyways.

    
    
        1 After running Wolff's driver's license, Kahn left the scene without ordering Wolff to desist.
    
        2 Legally, a police detention has occurred when "a reasonable individual" in that circumstance would be believe he or she is not free to leave 
    

<http://www.lbpost.com/life/greggory/12188>

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guard-of-terra
In other news: <http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/photo-ok/>

I don't see how limiting right to make shots of public space it is good for a
society. I think it simply isn't and the said right should be codified.

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tzs
I'm getting really close to automatically flagging anything from TechDirt. I
don't recall ever seeing a worthwhile story on TechDirt that wasn't covered
much more accurately elsewhere.

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bediger
Most vacation snapshots have no apparent esthetic value. Virtually all
"partying people" have no esthetic value. If this pseudo-law will deter people
from taking poorly composed, red-eyed, overly-flash-filled shots of tipsy
partiers, I'm all for it.

Talk about your unintended consequence!

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fedorabbit
I thought it's in Europe... California? who came up with this horrible idea?

