You've seen this, of course - it pops to mind. I don't think you're going to find an organized volume of this somewhere, but it's not *you* that are in danger but rather your subjects, and it's not a criminal court that is the scariest place to be, but a civil court where the standard of proof is not as strict, or even outside of the courtroom.
I think that as a photographer you're pretty clearly protected in the absence of some bar to capturing images in a non-public space. (Personally, I carry a copy of "the Photographer's Right" in my camera bag and refer to it when in doubt.)
We're going to play a game of "let's suppose" here using my body-painting example. Let's suppose that your employment situation were such that your employer could terminate you for "lascivious conduct" outside of work. You attend some festival, and paint some naked body and you sign them. Pictures are taken by another person, published on the web by a fourth. You are not in these pictures at all, yet I'll bet you could be terminated if your signature was recognizable.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, of course, but the above doesn't really refer to a court scenario at all, yet there are consequences. They might not stand up in court, but you'd have to sue your former employer to fix it and that is expensive and would pretty much destroy your chances of any future employment above retail level - law or no.
And if you want examples of criminal cases where this kind of thing would happen, I'd look into application of some of the more egregious drug enforcement legislation. Norml probably has some, for one thing.
Re: Really?
Date: 2006-05-09 09:02 am (UTC)I think that as a photographer you're pretty clearly protected in the absence of some bar to capturing images in a non-public space. (Personally, I carry a copy of "the Photographer's Right" in my camera bag and refer to it when in doubt.)
We're going to play a game of "let's suppose" here using my body-painting example. Let's suppose that your employment situation were such that your employer could terminate you for "lascivious conduct" outside of work. You attend some festival, and paint some naked body and you sign them. Pictures are taken by another person, published on the web by a fourth. You are not in these pictures at all, yet I'll bet you could be terminated if your signature was recognizable.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, of course, but the above doesn't really refer to a court scenario at all, yet there are consequences. They might not stand up in court, but you'd have to sue your former employer to fix it and that is expensive and would pretty much destroy your chances of any future employment above retail level - law or no.
And if you want examples of criminal cases where this kind of thing would happen, I'd look into application of some of the more egregious drug enforcement legislation. Norml probably has some, for one thing.