photography restrictions / caring for forum tidyness or political correctness driven censorship ?...

[polsteam]

I get an impression that some of the moderators are going too far in their committment...

I posted a message with two links to news items from British newspaper's website, which discussed issue of harrasing the people who take pictures in public places by the Police...

Isn't it the problem that often affects shipspotters ?...

In my post I mentioned that although the linked stories do not relate directly to shipspotting, they still may be of interest on this forum...

Please, moderators, show some belief in this forum users' IQ level and let them decide for themselves, which posts are useful and which are not...

My post was not even moved to (supposedly) more appropriate forum, but deleted, and I got the message from moderator:
"I have decided to remove your latest forum post. I think it has no real relevance to shipspotting and I can't find a place in the forum as well. Sorry"

Well, relevance WAS there.
And one of the linked stories provided info on EU lawmakers ruling that would be probably (at least sometimes) of help (as law backing) for those who are defending their right to take pictures in public places (so the post was bringing a little bit of practical advice for shipspotters).

My post was not a spam, and covered an issue encountered sometimes during shipspotting - restrictions to freedom of photography in public places.

Do not be overzealous and let users decide which post is relevant, and which is not...  If it is not then it simply falls to the far end of topics list, as "active" topics are always brought to the fore... This is a good regulation mechanism...

And the post WAS NOT absolutely irrelevant to this forum, as it WAS covering the very issue that sometimes restricts our freedom to take pictures of ships.

[polsteam]

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=search&gid=50792816126

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-a-Photographer-Not-a-Terrorist/128534046017

http://photographernotaterrorist.org/


of course - this:
http://photographernotaterrorist.org/wp-content/uploads/s44bust.pdf
...is of direct use only in the UK, however, this may serve as an example to follow in other countries (when searching for appropriate law)...
in most democratic countries photographing in public places is NOT prohibited...

this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8453878.stm
might be important not only for the UK, but also the whole EU...


these two links below were in my post that was deleted:
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/photographers-protest-stop-search-terrorism-police
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/dec/15/police-terrorism

[Fred Vloo]

The deletion was probably done by a UK admin, who was to embarrassed that these kind of practises were taking place in his country ;-)
Have fun
Fred

[polsteam]

fortunately there were not any harsh cases of problems encountered by shipspotters in my country, as far as I know (but widely publicised cases took place in the interrior, in connection with public buildings in the centre of the city and with one industrial installation - not anything sensitive like military base or something, just ordinary production facilities)

but minor cases of disputes with guards / harrasement of shipspotters occured...

[polsteam]

photographer's rights in the US

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

[Guest]

Well I for one thought the posting was VERY interesting and HIGHLY relevant to a Ship Photography Web Site. We stand every chance in the UK of being stopped and searched by the Police under Section 44, so it's worth members being aware of the current view taken by the authorities of photographers, both professional and amateur.

Does the Admin name him/herself? - perhaps we could have a fuller explanation for this apparent censorship. Hopefully it is just a case of someone making a quick and misguided decision?

I would have thought the posting would have sat nicely within the Category Help and Advice - 'Advice regarding cameras and photography'.

Regards (post #1)

[polsteam]

I do not want to be accusative...

It is not the real point, who deleted my post...

Obviously - if you receive a PM (private message) - you know, from whom it comes...  and - of course - the Moderator who deleted my post and let me know about it undersigned (introduced) himself...

The point is that SOME Moderators (in general, not to point at anyone personally here, in this thread) should be probably more careful before deleting topics and keep in mind that their personal judgement might be subjective and biased and not very much going in line with the feelings of many (or most) of the forum users...

[itsfoto]

I just happened to take note that there was a contribution on the forum that I wanted to read carefully asap, because it looked like something potentially noteworthy. But before I found time to do so it was gone again, leaving me - certainly not for the first time - impressed by the swiftness of some unnamed admin. It may have been a piece of bad luck on the admin's part, but now that the question is raised, maybe the original contribution could be reproduced?
I would still very much like to read it.
cheers
Uwe

[Guest]

polsteam wrote:
I do not want to be accusative...

It is not the real point, who deleted my post...

Obviously - if you receive a PM (private message) - you know, from whom it comes...  and - of course - the Moderator who deleted my post and let me know about it undersigned (introduced) himself...

The point is that SOME Moderators (in general, not to point at anyone personally here, in this thread) should be probably more careful before deleting topics and keep in mind that their personal judgement might be subjective and biased and not very much going in line with the feelings of many (or most) of the forum users...

Are we now in a position where we are required to get the 'blessing' of the Admins when it comes to what we can and what we cannot discuss in the Forum. Can we really have a Forum where due to the action of one Admin the point under discussion is executed in such a manner.

The discussion matter was pertinent to ALL UK photographers on this site, was not indecent or inflammatory, so why was it halted - is this a still a community where we can freely discuss matters amongst ourselves?

Regards (Post #2)

[Kelvin Davies]

Steve,

Perhaps Section 44 has spilled over into this forum?
It seems odd we can have page after page after page..... on the topic of copyright but this topic is apparently not welcome.
Kelvin

[Cornelia Klier]

Are we now in a position where we are required to get the 'blessing' of the Admins when it comes to what we can and what we cannot discuss in the Forum. Can we really have a Forum where due to the action of one Admin the point under discussion is executed in such a manner.  The discussion matter was pertinent to ALL UK photographers on this site, was not indecent or inflammatory, so why was it halted - is this a still a community where we can freely discuss matters amongst ourselves?  Regards (Post #2)

As one of the photo administrators I can only say that I have not been fiddling around with the message center, nor would I do such !!

Talking as a member who is able to use own brains and expects such of fellow users as well, I think we all are able to choose ourselfes what is important for us and waht is not !!!

To my fellow moderators I hope you do agree on this too. My opinion is, that interference is only needed in case a topic gets out of hand with members using bad language etc., and discussion in a civilized manners is not possible anymore.

In all other ways, I would like to ask the fellow moderators to use common sense and respect free speech as well !!!

[polsteam]

I am sorry to disappoint you    My (deleted) post was not very much "ambitious" or "content-rich" from my side  

I just felt It might be useful (or interesting) to some of us - shipspotters.

My post content was basically the two links:
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan ... p-search-terrorism-police
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/dec/15/police-terrorism
...and a remark that: "although linked pieces of information are not directly related to shipspotting, they may still be of interest on this forum"...

[polsteam]

now, that (unexpectedly to me ) this threat seems to be pretty legitimate on this forum (judging from the response) let me take this opportunity to provide further links to "defending notes" that might be probably useful (to be kept in a wallet or in a pocket) to be carried when going shipspotting...
for Portugal:
http://namargemdodia.blogspot.com/2009/07/direito-de-fotografar-em-portugal.html
for the UK:
http://www.sirimo.co.uk/2009/05/14/uk-photographers-rights-v2/
and for Australia:
http://4020.net/words/photorights.php

again - these are NOT ALWAYS usable for shipspotters, but at least SOMETIMES might be useful...


If you find similar "legal advices" for other countries - please, let us know here in this forum...

[polsteam]

you are the Boss here...
I am just a humble forum user and thread starter  

[itsfoto]

Thank you polsteam, for posting the Guardian links.
Regrettably one of them is corrupted, I believe.
cheers
Uwe