We’ve an advert for something or other running in Australia set on a beach. It shows a guy messing with his digital camera and accidentally or deliberately focusing on a group of young girls ‘dressed’ in scraps of material that hardly cover anything. They look up, realise the camera is pointing at them and start squealing that someone is taking their photo. At this a couple of toughs… perhaps supposed to be boyfriends(?) march up the beach and start monstering the guy who has by now stuffed the camera down his boardies. He points to some innocent looking tourist… and the guys go off after him instead.
So. Question is… why are the girls complaining? Surely undressed as they are on a public beach they *must* be aware that guys of all ages will be looking at them and probably taking photos… I mean why else *would* they be dressed/undressed like that?
Secondly… where do these two guys get off monstering people because on the supposition this guy had taken a photo. What would they have done had he said yes he had?? Beaten the living crap out of him? What sort of message is this to be sending young guys anyway… that it’s ok to smack someone around because you *think* they did something you didn’t like??
I’m not sure what the law is here… I can’t say whether it is or is not illegal to point your camera at someone or something on a public beach???
After all, suppose I want a general view of the area and someone happens to be in shot? Do I have to wait for the beach to clear before I can take the picture?? Do I need to go get them to sign a disclaimer saying I can use their image?
After all, with the latest multi mega-pixel cameras you can enlarge to your hearts content with no pixelation… and with a decent film based camera the enlargements can be huge. Who’s to say what you can see when it’s enlarged?
All seems a bit iffy to me.
The Eclectic Interweb 