[GrandJediMasterYoda]

DNC headquarters? Where all the evil originates?

[The Sons of Liberty]

Beelzebama, the antiCHRIST, whom they worship:

[ASOC]

It is against Copyright law to image a building without the owners permission. Funny stuff the Law.

[gr8eman]

Is this “Breaking News”?!

[Gay State Conservative]

A few years ago a guy in a residential area of the Upper East Side of Manhattan came up to me and,in a threatening tone,said “why are you taking pictures of me?” I told him I was taking photos of the famous brownstone in front of which he was standing.It was 11AM but I was still scared.

[miele man]

After listening to the video where the camera guy clearly says he doesn’t know what the building is, then why is he photographing it? For what purpose and for whom? If it is a Wells Fargo building, then it seems obvious to me why WF has security equipment in place. They have been robbed a few times in their existence.

[Vermont Lt]

Standing on a street and photographing anything visible from that street is perfectly legal.

Shooting over a fence, through a window, or anything that is not visible from the public way can be illegal under local or state regulations.

Of course, very private people dont always agree with these rules.

[Uncle Miltie]

It is well established law that photography in public is legal.

The only part that might be illegal is to use photographs of private individuals for profit. To do that, you need a “model” release, or a contract with payment to the model.

Nonetheless, it is common courtesy to secure the approval of photographic subjects when reasonably possible. I always ask parents before I take pictures of their cute kids in public. Some say Yes, some say No. No problem.

[jumpingcholla34]

People who take photos in public get hassled all the time for various reasons. Photographing people is really tricky; if they aren't just faces in a crowd shot, it's best to ask permission. Taking a picture of somebody's kid is a good way to get a beat-down. Photographing private property from a public place, as in this story, will get you hassled by rent-a-cops who don't know the law. Photographing cops, while perfectly legal as long as you don't interfere with the performance of their duties, gets a lot of people arrested. Finally, in some neighborhoods, the residents think it's just fun to attack photographers and steal their gear. (A Somali kid in Lewiston, Maine, hit me in the head with a rock while I was taking a picture of a railroad trestle. The little punk had a good arm.)

Be careful out there!

[kiltie65]

That’s what I was thinking. WHY was it so important not to take pictures of the building? Something going on they didn’t want people to know?

[ifinnegan]

“...reading the Photography is Not a Crimelabel on his shirt...”

Obviously more here than meets the eye.

[HandyDandy]

Just slightly off topic, but I remember reading about Edward Hopper and how he would drive around, see a street scene he liked, pull over and start to sketch it. At the time I read that, I had the thought that he would get in trouble for doing that today.

[Rodamala]

You should see when the transit cops rough up the retired railbuffs for taking pictures of the NJ Transit trains. This is not America.

[Prospero]

Everybody has to stick to the Earth somewhere... can I retain an image of the outside of a building, from a public thoroughfare on my retina?

For 1/30th of a second? How about retaining a retinal image in my memory?

I forget...

[Cementjungle]

...telling him that it was a crime to take photos of a private building

I don't think that's true. You can get into copyright trouble if you PUBLISH photos of someone's private property, but I don't think there's anything that says you can't photograph a house/building.