Pablo the Grouch

[muckefuck]

As I exited the building an hour ago to go to lunch, a young woman leapt up from inside a recycling bin placed directly to the left of the front entrance and shouted, "HEY!". I swiveled my head back to look and kept walking. After a few paces, it occurred to me that--harmless exam week prank or otherwise--there was something Not Cool in this. So, seeing that she had ducked back inside, I walked quietly up to the bin and, approaching from the side opposite the revolving door, clamped my hands down on either edge of the lid. She immediately noticed this and began to push against it. "I don't know who this is," she said with a tone of worry in her voice. I said nothing and continued to hold. She pushed harder and called out, with increasing alarm, "I'm sure I really don't know who this is!" I glanced about and elicited wry smiles from some of people who were sitting on nearby benches enjoying the fine weather.

As luck would have it, one of my colleagues came along. "Whatcha got there, muckefuck?" "I think it's a leprechaun," I replied, "and I'm going to hold it here until it tells me where it keeps its gold." Despite my glibness, I did feel a touch sheepish and took a moment to reflect on what criminal statutes I might be violating at the moment. So after he went inside, I released the top and started walking. Seconds later, the lid burst open and the woman gasped loudly for breath while breaking into hysterical giggles. But I wasn't more than a hundred feet before I heard her shout of "HEY!" again. Dismayed that I hadn't dissuaded her, I thought that if I came back to find her still there, I'd get a friend to help me invert the bin.

But there was no sign of her or the blue bin when I returned. Upon telling this story to Pablo and Mr Smith a few moments ago, I discovered why: When Pablo had gone out for a smoke, his response was less wry bemusement and more "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" She sheepishly tried to defend the stunt as being "for a class" while he mocked and berated her with all the savagery of a misanthrope deprived of nicotine. He then turned on her cohort--who I'd never noticed--and asked, "Are you videotaping me without my consent? Get rid of it!" As he stepped aside to calmly smoke a cigarette, they packed up and moved on.

Comments

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Of course, in a public space, you don't need people's consent to videotape them for personal/non-commercial user.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say that.

[ceirdwenfc.livejournal.com]

Really? Is that true? I thought that if it was of a personal nature (and not public safety) that my permission is still needed to videotape me as the object of the video (and not in the background). I'm disturbed by this.

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

In a public space, you have no expectation of privacy. If the person doing the recording is harassing you, that's different, but otherwise, if you're in a public space, you can be recorded. If they use a recognizable image of you in a profit-making venture, you can make a claim against that, but if it's not recognizable as you, or if no money is made and it's not libelous or slanderous, you have no recourse. Note that most of the restrictions that do exist require distribution. If they videotape you and don't distribute it, there's little you can do. Finally, if they own the property, they can make your not taking pictures a condition of your presence on that property.

Note that there's a difference between government surveillance and non-governmental surveillance, because the 4th amendment doesn't apply to non-government actors.

[ceirdwenfc.livejournal.com]

Thanks for taking the time to go over this. I'm still very disturbed by it.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

I am profoundly disturbed by the reverse proposition, which is currently creeping, quite illegally, into the public sphere in Britain. People need to be able to record what goes on in public, because sometimes Bad Things happen, and a record is required for restitution. Although it is not normally couched in these terms, freedom to witness is vitally important to maintaining civil society, and is linked to free speech as a fundamental freedom.