No future for French photos?

[doitashimash1te]

This article made me think again before going to Paris for street photography...

 

[Marc-A.]

Sad story, very sad story ... 😱

 

[doitashimash1te]

Yes. And I was wondering: could it really be that bad? I guess my French colleagues here can tell...

 

[Marc-A.]

It's not that bad ... at least, I'm not in jail yet.
The end of the article seems quite fair: "There are many thousands of people who could take photographers - such as Ronis - to court and win. Fortunately few of them have yet done so, perhaps recognising that common sense is more just than the extreme logic of the law, and that public interest is greater than self interest."
In the sad story about Ronis, there's a too human explanation: money. If the photographer is famous, or if the picture is published in a famous paper, then people want to make easy money. This is the pervated use of the French privacy laws, which primarily are intended to protect people from being exposed in paper while they're taken in a private area such as home, private beach, club ... etc. (No Daily Mirror in France, and that's not bad). Just hope people remain reasonable ...

 

[sooner]

Interesting, to be sure. I visited the Pompidou center recently, which is a building that could be termed a work of art in itself, but the staff assured me that photography was permitted partout including all the art works except for those in the special, temporary exhibit. The next interesting legal question would be that of waiver, i.e. did the Pompidou waive its right to sue me for taking pictures, even though I didn't get it in writing.

 

[sienarot]

Same thing for Quebec:
http://csc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/1998/1998rcs1-591/1998rcs1-591.html

Hope nobody at the last Canadian RFF meet gets in trouble! 🙂