Review: The Legal Landscape of Street Shooting

This evening I attended the Fotovision.org lecture on “The Legal Landscape of Street Shooting“.

The panel included:

David Greene, Executive Director of “The First Amendment Project“

Pondra Perkins is a Staff Attorney and Environmental Advocacy Fellow at “The First Amendment Project“

James Wheaton, co-founder of the “The First Amendment Project“

This was by far one of the best panel discussions I’ve been to. The $10 admission fee was a bargain. The panelists defined numerous key concepts, terms and laws with relevant examples from recent news. You’d think that a legal discussion would end up being stale and boring, but the panelists had a great sense of humor and outlook to the concepts discussed. A helpful handout included key forms and legal statutes to be aware of was handed out along with the discussion outline:

1. The Basics
2. Taking Photographs on Public and Quasi-Public Property
3. Taking Photographs on Private Property
4. Invasion of Privacy
– Intrusion
– False Light
– Private Facts
– Misappropriation
5. Obscenity and Child Pornography
6. Protecting Your Unpublished Work
7. Copyright
8. Trademark
9. Subpoenas and Shield Laws

The discussion format was open enabling questions to be asked throughout. Those in attendance, hungry for information, were well mannered so the discussion was orderly and civil. Those in attendance had a photojournalist slant, but that was to be expected considering the event was held at the UC Berkeley School of Photojournalism. Don’t be fooled by the audience or location, all the content discussed was pertinent to every photographer. Although more may know me for my landscape and nature work I still enjoy cityscape, street and travel photography. Awareness to the laws impacting photographers is a universal need and affects all genres.

On that note the discussion was recorded and is due to be released as a podcast. As soon as I’m made aware of its release I’ll be sure to post a link.

[tags]legal, law, photography, street, photography, shooting, photojournalism, review, First Amendment Project[/tags]