Law

The problem of photographers being seen as "pedophiles with cameras" is widespread and is a subject we've reported on and written about many times over the years. One of the latest victims is David Updike, a Harvard-educated photographer and writer.

While sitting in Cambridge's Dana Park on September 23rd, Updike found himself suddenly surrounded by police officers and questioned about what he was taking pictures of. It turns out a woman had reported him for "taking pictures of children," and now Updike has responded to the incident by writing an open letter to that woman.

It looks like the US government will soon be tightening its control over drones. A new report says the government will soon announce mandatory registration of hobbyist drones with the US Transportation Department.

A New York Police Department officer has been convicted of a felony for lying about the arrest of a New York Times photographer back in 2012.

In what will rank as one of the most disgraceful uses of social media in 2015, a 23-year-old woman in Florida has been arrested after broadcasting a live stream of herself driving while drunk on Periscope.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced yesterday that it's proposing an unprecedented $1.9 million fine against Chicago-based SkyPan International, a company that shoots aerial photos and videos with camera drones. This is the largest civil penalty ever proposed against a drone operator for endangering airspace safety.

The city of Atlanta, Georgia, has an old local law from 1977 that makes it illegal to shoot photos of people on public sidewalks. The law has never resulted in an arrest or citation, but it did make the news last week after police officers reportedly cited the ordinance to prevent photographers from taking pictures on city sidewalks.

The NPPA and 11 news organizations wrote a letter to Atlanta's mayor, Kasim Reed, and now Atlanta is saying that the law will be repealed.

The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) announced this week that it has joined in on a new lawsuit filed against the state of Wyoming over recent laws that criminalizes "data collecting" in "open land." Among other things, the NPPA argues that the laws put photojournalists on the wrong end of the law for legitimate work.

Here's something that you should be aware of if you use Behance to share your photography portfolio online: the "No Use At All" symbol used by Behance is the same well-known one used by Creative Commons for "No Rights Reserved." In other words, with a casual glance, it may look like your work is in the public domain and completely free for everyone to use however they'd like.

Back in May 2015, the Lewisville Independent School District in Texas issued student Anthony Mazur a notice to take down any photographs from his personal Flickr account that had been captured with school equipment or face a threat of suspension. After much debate with the school board, Mazur won the battle thanks to US copyright law and support from his local community.

The school isn't backing down from its policy, though: it's now requiring students to sign a "work for hire" contract to use district-owned camera equipment and, as a result, surrender all of their copyright protection. Mazur recently posted the new contract on Twitter for everyone to read.

Rapper T.I. is being criticized by photographers after using a photo without permission on advertising for a party and then getting into an online dispute about the infringement.

Sex offenders have the 1st Amendment right to photograph children in public. That's what a state Court of Appeals in Wisconsin ruled on Tuesday, striking down a law that make it illegal for registered sex offenders to take ordinary pictures of kids in public without getting permission from the parents.

Remember that copyright controversy last year between photographer David Slater and the money that took selfies with Slater's camera back in 2011? PETA is joining in on the fracas.

The animal rights group filed a lawsuit yesterday on behalf of the monkey, a 6-year-old macaque in Indonesia named Naruto. PETA argues that Naruto is the legal copyright owner of the photos (seen above) rather than Slater, and that all proceeds from the photos should be used for the benefit of the monkey.

As a photographer, videographer, and drone hobbyist, I follow with great interest all the media attention drones have received lately. Unfortunately, drone news coverage here in my country, Colombia, has been skewed towards the negative, with stories of isolated incidents like the Connecticut "Gun-Drone" and the Mexican "Drug-Drone" making big splashes on every possible media outlet.

So I wasn’t surprised two weeks ago when our FAA equivalent, the Aeronáutica Civil, released a new iteration of its National Drone Regulation. I knew it wasn’t going to be good, what I didn’t anticipate is that it would be a collection of some of the most absurd, abusive, illogical laws I’ve ever seen.

On September 23rd, Pope Francis will be visiting Washington D.C. and rolling through the streets during a Papal Parade in his Popemobile. The Secret Service is working hard on security preparations leading up to the visit, and yesterday it published security policies for law enforcement to enforce.

Among the banned items at the parade are firearms, explosives, drones, and selfies sticks.

If you find that someone is using your photo online without your permission, one thing you can do is send a DMCA take down request to force the hosting company to remove the image. But be careful, though: you need to make sure the usage doesn't fall under fair use. Otherwise, you could be liable for sending a bad-faith take-down notice.

California governor Jerry Brown has vetoed a Senate bill that sought to make it illegal to fly a drone less than 350 feet above someone's private property without their permission.

We've heard of quite a few close calls between drones and aircraft over the past few years, but this latest one was an extremely close call that actually resulted in an arrest.

A hobby camera drone operator was arrested in Hollywood late last month after flying his drone within 50 feet of an Los Angeles Police Department helicopter that was searching for a suspect.

Well, this is a bit... awkward. Getty Images recently threatened a lawsuit against German blog Get Digital, which had published the famous ‘Socially Awkward Penguin’ meme without first obtaining permission.

That is right: you technically need permission to use the meme. According to Getty Images, the meme contains an image originally shot by nature photographer George F. Mobley. The blog ended up paying Getty Images $868 for the copyright violation.

It’s been a funny week. A couple of days ago, while I was sitting in the office reformatting my MacBook in sunny West Sussex, I was also sort of arrested in Islington, London.

Let me elaborate...

We’ve written a number of times recently about how flying your camera drone near wildfires is both dangerous and illegal, but this week two men also discovered that getting too close to killer whales can also get you in trouble with the law. Two drone pilots recently did just that in Washington, and they received hefty fines.

Photographers, be warned: if you share a photo online with a Creative Commons license that allows for commercial usage, you need to be okay with if that actually happens. A photographer named Art Dragulis just learned that lesson by losing a copyright infringement lawsuit.

This is pretty crazy if it's real: an ammunition company called Snake River has just announced a new product called the Drone Munition shot shell: it's a shotgun shell designed specifically for shooting down camera drones.

Photography safety is a growing concern leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This past weekend, a group of photographers were mugged and had their expensive equipment stolen while covering a road cycling test event for next year's Games.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, pricey camera equipment is becoming one of the favorite targets of robbers. In 2013, the New York Times reported that photojournalists in Oakland were becoming the victims of camera robberies. Last month, photographers were robbed in broad daylight by assailants wielding pepper spray.

The San Francisco Police Department is now asking for the public's help in solving yet another DSLR robbery that occurred in the city last month.

Photographer Trey Ratcliff is currently on a photo walk tour of the United States. On Wednesday, he visited Atlanta, Georgia, and led a large crowd of photographers on a route through the city. While strolling through Centennial Olympic Park, however, the group was confronted by police officers and told that their photography wasn't allowed in the public park.

Taking a quick snapshot of your meal at restaurants has become a widespread pre-meal ritual in recent years. People often like to keep a memento of the food they eat, and perhaps share that image with others online as well.

But if you're a foodie blogger and/or photographer in Germany, you might want to think twice the next time you pull out your camera: your simple photo could constitute copyright infringement.

In September 2014, a new law in New Hampshire made it illegal to take a photograph within a voting booth in the state. If you decided to share a photo of yourself and your ballot, the state could have issued you a fine of up to $1,000. Today a judge struck down the law in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

When your finger presses down on a camera's shutter button and captures a photograph, that photo is instantly copyrighted with you as the rightful owner. However, there are benefits to formally registering your work with the United States Copyright Office. Today, we are going to take a look at the process involved in registering your visual artwork, along with the benefits of doing so and why you may want to consider it for photos you value.

On Monday, two professional photographers were robbed of their camera gear in broad daylight in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. The two suspects were reportedly armed with pepper spray, and they made off with equipment worth over $7,000.

A month after Union Pacific published a PSA video warning photographers to stay away from train tracks, the US government has published its own PSA video that warns people to keep drones away from wildfires.

The 30-second video above, titled "Drones PSA," was released by the National Interagency Fire Center last week. The center also has a new webpage titled "No Drone Zone" dedicated to warning photographers and videographers that camera drones and wildfires don't mix.

Several thousand people attended a rally in Mexico City yesterday to denounce the killing of a Mexican photojournalist over the weekend.

Austin Haughwout has a knack for getting drones featured in news stories... and usually not in a positive light. The 18-year-old's name first appeared here back in 2014 when he captured viral video of himself getting attacked by a woman on a beach. She claimed that he was being a "pervert" and was using his camera drone to photograph girls in bikinis.

California-based photographer Jeff Werner has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular website ViralNova for publishing (and profiting from) his photos without his permission.

A man in Kentucky was arrested this past Sunday after he used a shotgun to shoot down a camera drone flying over his property. He's being charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment, both of which are felonies.

With the advent of consumer drones, governments are in the process of creating laws and regulations to keep both operators and bystanders safe. While some countries, such as the United States, haven’t made much headway, others have already established clear and concise rules for drone flying. The UK’s new ‘Dronecode’ initiative aims at communicating these regulations through brief bullet points and an animated video.

A 16-year-old boy has caused a stir after releasing a video showing himself being denied the right to film a checkpoint pat-down -- something the TSA officially allows.

There have been several incidents recently of camera drones getting in the way of firefighting efforts in California, including a case last week of firefighters being hindered in saving burning cars from a wildfire. Now lawmakers are taking action to deal with this problem.

An upcoming bill aims to give firefighters permission to knock camera drones out of the sky in order to safely do their job.

Heads up, photographers: major changes to US copyright law may be just around the corner, and you may or may not like what's being proposed. The US Copyright Office recently published a report titled "Orphan Works and Mass Digitization," which examines and recommends potential solutions for the issues of orphan works (i.e. the use of copyrighted images when the owner cannot be found) and mass digitization (i.e. projects like Google Books that digitize vast amounts of copyrighted works).

If you're a photographer in Fargo, North Dakota, beware: if someone thinks you're acting "creepy" or "suspicious," you could have your reputation destroyed in a very public way.

Just days after one photographer was kicked out of a McDonalds after taking pictures of kids, another photographer has been banned from Fargo's public pools and shamed online after being accused of the same thing.

A wildfire tore through Southern California’s Cajon Pass yesterday, crossing a freeway and engulfing a number of cars in its path. Now authorities are saying that firefighters could have done more to save cars and homes... were it not for multiple drones getting in the way of firefighting operations.

An Ohio man was arrested on Monday after he witnessed a car crash and, instead of helping the injured occupants, decided to capture the results of the accident with his cell phone from inside the crashed car.

When working with paid subjects in shoots, it's always important to have written contracts and signed releases to prove that you have permission to do what you wish with what you capture. Here's what can happen if you rely on verbal agreements...

Last year, a video of a woman being catcalled more than 100 times while walking around NYC for 10 hours went viral online, amassing over 40 million views. Now the woman is suing the creator of the video for $500,000, claiming that she never gave written permission for the video to be used before it was widely published and promoted.

Photographer Randall Armor recently wrote an article about the war on photographers in which one scary 'P' word is being thrown around: the accusation of being a pedophile. News stories like the one above don't help the cause.

The 3-minute segment features an interview with a mother who called her local news station's whistleblower hotline. She says she and her family were "disturbed" and "shaken" recently after discovering a man taking pictures of her kids at a McDonald's restaurant.

Florida-based photographer Kiersten Grant was at the Miracle Strip Amusement Park with her daughter Mylie recently when she came across a board near a ticket line that featured a girl that looked surprisingly like Mylie.

After taking a closer look, Grant was surprised to discovered that it was Mylie.

Good news for photographers in Europe: freedom of panorama will live on to see another day -- in most countries, at least. Today the European Parliament voted on a controversial proposal that threatened to restrict the photography of copyrighted buildings and sculptures from public places. An overwhelming majority of MEPs voted against the plan.

Last month, we shared how "freedom of panorama" has come under attack in Europe. According to a proposed amendment to copyright reforms being considered, photographers would need to seek authorization before commercially using photos showing copyrighted works that are permanently located in public spaces.

Once word of the proposed amendment got out, photographers have been working hard to speak out against the proposal in order to retain freedom of panorama.

There have been multiple stories of drones getting shot out of the sky with shotguns in the past couple of years. Last November, we reported that a New Jersey man was arrested after shooting down a camera drone that was taking pictures over his property.

Now another drone pilot, Eric Joe, has just won a lawsuit against a disgruntled neighbor who blasted Joe's hexacopter out of the sky with a shotgun.

There are a number of easy-to-use model release form apps out there already, but Snapwire wants to do better. The photo marketplace has launched its own free app called Releases. Designed for professional photographers, the app lets you easily create, sign, and send model and properly releases using your iPhone.

A federal court has dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Nike by photographer Jacobus Rentmeester, who claimed that the sports juggernaut had ripped off his 1984 photo of Michael Jordan for its own photo and its iconic Jumpman logo.

Should photographers be able to include copyrighted public building and sculptures in photos without having to worry about payment or permissions? The concept is called "freedom of panorama," and it's currently under attack over in Europe.