Video and photography and the law

September 12, 2008 at 10:42 pm | In Photography, Shooting Video | 1 Comment
Tags: Photography, photography laws, privacy, the 10 legal commandments of photography, video laws, videotaping

In my career in TV news, it was common to run into situations where people called our newsroom after seeing themselves or their kids in a newscast and threatened to sue the TV station if we showed the video footage of them again.

Sorry, you were in a public place, we’d tell them.

That remains a common misconception of many people. And more so today with so many more video cameras and still cameras on the streets.

Bottom line, if you’re in a public place – a park, store, school, shopping mall – and have no expectation of privacy or are not trying to seclude yourself from public view then you may be photographed or videotaped.

And, those photos and that video can be posted or published in various places. In my video business, where I often am shooting video or photos at high school or youth sporting events, I don’t need permission of the players, coaches or fans to put that on the Web for “news” or “artistic” purposes. I do get permission, however, to use images for marketing purposes.

It’s important to note that taking photos or video and publishing or posting photos or video are two different things.

The tricky part is, if you use a photo or video to imply that the person in the video is doing something they’re not, or use their image to put them in a negative light, then you can get in trouble.

I tracked down some great resources if you’re interested in reading more about the law as it pertains to photography and video. I can’t possibly address all the various situations that can come up, so…

The Best Article Every day featured a post called “The 10 Legal Commandments of Photography” that features some good scenarios and links.

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We were shooting a union organizing spot to post on the union website. The video taping setup took place on a public sidewalk on the same block of the employer hospital and was against a large concrete column to avoid pedestrian traffic. The tape is a close up of the person being interviewed and did not require background footage.

The employer demanded to view the video to insure whether images of persons were taken without their consent. We refused since content of our union organizing information is protected (NLRA) Furthermore, the employer claimed that healthplan members medical information may be compromised if their image was posted on our website.

Our crews response was that we were in a public area and were not directly taping pedestrians but only the person being interview. Even if a pedestrian was caught on image, how would anyone know if they were a healthplan member coming to an appointment. How does that image disclose any personal medical information or invasion of privacy?

I understand that if you are in a public place and have no expectation of privacy or trying to seclude yourself that you can be video taped or photographed.

We further asked if the same interrogation occurred when Channel 4 was taping a spot in front of the hospital a few weeks earlier. The response was that Channel 4 was taping from from public sidewalk and street and that was ok. Since we taped under the same conditions it appears to us that the employer’s intrusion into our video taping spot was an attempt to intimidate and interfere with the union’s organizing efforts.

Since our video tap is not being used for commerical value we also declined the employers demands to obtain consent forms.
Were we within our rights?

George Wong Jr.

Comment by George Wong Jr. — April 17, 2009 #

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