Pictures Taken In Public - With A Twist

[arch3angel at gmail.com (Robert Miller)]

I consulted a well known photographer and he consulted an attorney.

http://photofocus.podomatic.com/
http://photofocus.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-12-15T05_38_18-08_00

I have also reviewed all the case law and laws governing reporters for 
the state of Ohio, all of which match what this Scott Bourne's attorney 
said.

On 12/22/2009 10:07 AM, Tim Mugherini wrote:
> That is ridiculous - now, have you consultant an attorney?
>
> On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 5:58 PM, Robert Miller<arch3angel at gmail.com>  wrote:
>    
> > While I know this is going to boil down to it happened in a public place
> > stop my whining... but this still upsets me and I have no legal recourse WTF
> >
> > <rant>
> >
> > A few weeks back my son, 12 years old, was at the local library after
> > school working on the computer when a local newspaper reporter came in
> > and took pictures of the people in the library using its services.  The
> > story was regarding the fact that my county is considering closing some
> > of the libraries.  Now after the interviews were completed and the
> > pictures were taken, the reporter told my kid to tell his folks his
> > picture would be in the paper that coming Sunday.  So as any parent who
> > gave a flying crap about their kid would pick the paper up to look at
> > the article.  As said to my son his picture was nice and big with his
> > first and last name along with a little blurb about why he don't want
> > the library closed.
> >
> > At first this really pissed me off since my son is under age and no one
> > asked for my permission, let alone offer a business card or a means to
> > contact anything about the article.  After a few days of mumbling, and
> > some deep investigation I found that I have ZERO legal recourse for this
> > happening so I rolled with the punch and picked my self up telling my
> > kid he displayed himself very well and expressed himself in his
> > statement like a young man should.  Then it hit me...
> >
> > I was on the local newspapers website and noticed my son's picture in an
> > article, not written the same as the newspaper itself but still
> > displaying my son's picture, well now I get concerned and begin to do
> > some digging on the metadata (thanks larry) to find misc normal data but
> > nothing too detailed.  Then it smacked me in the face like a truck load
> > of bricks!  Those (stealing a statement from Jack's comments earlier
> > just because I can :-) ) "... monkey sodomizing rat bastards..." have my
> > son's picture posted on the website for sale.  They are selling my son's
> > picture for profit, WHAT IN<many fool words omitted for John's safety>
> > gives these people the right to make a profit off my 12 year old son!
> >
> > Well I had sent an email to a well known photographer regarding this and
> > he consulted his lawyer only to find these newspaper organizations can
> > take the pictures of children and then sell them on their website as
> > "fine art", while I love my kid to death he is far from "fine art".  The
> > response this person got from their attorney was that unless a local law
> > prohibits the taking of children pictures in public places and selling
> > them I have no leg to stand on, which I have faced the fact.  It just
> > burns my butt that a child who knows no better, well didn't at the time,
> > was exploited to save a library and someone else NOT trying to raise the
> > money for the library is making a profit off this, no matter how small
> > that profit might be.  The attorney said if you want privacy don't leave
> > your home, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT CRAP, he is a child!  Does this mean a
> > child predator can sit 100 feet from a school and take pictures of
> > children walking home from school, throw up a website, call themselves a
> > freelance photographer, and sell these pictures as "fine art".
> >
> > We can borrow money from China and bail out businesses that made bad
> > choices but we can protect children from the basic protection of
> > exploitation for any reason, so long as that reason is a sad story of a
> > library closing and the newspaper can sell a couple prints.
> >
> > </rant>
> >
> > Sorry all this one just really hits me hard that a newspaper /
> > freelance photographer has all these freedoms to exploit citizens while
> > we fight to protect so much...
> >
> > - Robert
> > arch3angel
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> >      
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