<nettime> Re: [pure-silver]: Suspicious Circumstance

["Bert P. Krages" <krages@onemain.com>]

>From: wade tillett
>Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 2:59 AM
>To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
>Subject: Re: <nettime> Fascism in the USA?
>
>Just two weeks ago, I was detained, frisked, interrogated, threatened
>with indefinite detention and had my camera and film taken from me
>because I was taking pictures from a public road in the direction
>of a British Petroleum oil tank facility in East Chicago, Indiana.

It is highly unlikely that there was any legal basis for the photographer's 
detention and he may very well have strong grounds for a lawsuit. Last 
year, a pair of photographers were arrested by the Philadelphia PD for 
taking pictures of a refinery. Instead of accepting the police misconduct, 
they sued (one case has settled and the other is ongoing). It would be good 
if more photographers stood up for their rights when these kinds of things 
happen.

Barbara Streisand recently filed a suit against an environmental 
photographer because her mansion appears in one of his photographs of the 
California coastline (see http://www.californiacoastline.org/).  In my 
opinion, the suit has no merit and fortunately the photographer is not 
backing down. Her perspective is that it's taken her years to find an 
"isolated" mansion in Malibu and that the public should not know where she 
lives or be able to see the parasols on her patio. It's sad to see "the way 
were are" these days.

In February, I drafted a flyer (analogous to the ACLU "bust card") that 
provides information about the general right to take photographs in public 
places. If you are interested, it can be downloaded at:

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm



Bert P. Krages
Attorney at Law
6665 S.W. Hampton Street, Suite 200
Portland, Oregon 97223
<http://www.krages.com/lvaserv.htm>

Author of:
Legal Handbook for Photographers: The Rights and Liabilities of Making Images
<http://www.krages.com/lhp.htm>

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