Illegal to shoot on public property

*I am not an attorney* *this is not legal advice*

First off, sidewalks are public, unless they are within the private property a business, and soley maintained by that business. I just finished a photo law course at college, we did a lot of discussing about things of this nature. As long as you are one public property, you can take a picture of whatever, or whoever you want and it's perfectly legal, even if they're on private property. the only time you might get into trouble is if you are going to "excessive means" to invade someones privacy i.e. poperazi. It's what you do with the picture that will get you in trouble. However, government agencies do have a right to hold and question you if you are taking pictures of a government building, so be careful and prepared. No one has the right to confiscate your photography equipment without a seizure warrant from a judge. So if you are on private property and get caught taking picture and they try to confiscate your gear, don't let them have it, they are in the wrong. They can remove you from their property, that's it. Another issue, if the cops really want to, even though your taking pictures from a public sidewalk, they can ticket you for obstructing traffic, and disturbing the peace. It's happened before. hope this helps

Bring a tripod next time :) and the press.

What could he have done, if he touches you, then you can place assault charges on him. If he tries to keep you from leaving you can place unlawful detainment charges. If he touches your camera, then he is a theif and you can beat him sensless.....

The security guard that is... And call the cops first, as soon as they obstruct you from taking photo's. That way he is automatically the bad guy in any type of civil action.

Hmm, this is interesting. I work at Mission and 2nd and carry around my MP and shoot buildings, people and general street stuff both on my walk from the bus terminal and when I walk around at lunch. Never had any trouble so far but then again I do not find One Bush to be an extremely attractive building. More inclined to shoot the older style ones. I'll watch for this guy though.

Boing Boing picked up this story and of course from there the traffic goes nuts. There is now a photo contest to shoot photos of the building and a meet up planned on Saturday at noon to shoot the building.

Ha ha ... that is funny. Way to go. Did you get a picture of the security guard trying to block you as you take potshots over him? Would love to see that one:)

-A

However, government agencies do have a right to hold and question you if you are taking pictures of a government building, so be careful and prepared.

Stephen, where did you get this? The rules for a police stop haven't changed since Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). A police officer can briefly detain a person when the officer has specific and articulable facts that would indicate to a reasonable person that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed. I'm not aware of any law that criminalizes photographing government buildings, nor am I aware of any court decision holding that taking pictures, per se, is cause for a Terry stop.

This isn't to say that you won't be approached if you photograph a government building; it's happend to a fair number of people, and has been discussed several times on this forum. However, unless I am mistaken, in every case the agency whose personnel detained the photographer eventually admitted that they had made an error.

I think a citation for disturbing the peace would be a real stretch. Disorderly conduct (or whatever it's called in the appropriate jurisdiction) might be closer, but even then, it would seem a stretch if you weren't actually interfering in a substantial way. Unfortunately, this doesn't necessarily mean that the cops wouldn't issue a citation. The legal advice that I've been given is that if a cop insists that he will arrest you if you don't move on, do as he says, regardless of whether he's out in left field. You well might beat a ridiculous charge, but the money you'd spend on legal fees could be spent much better elsewhere.

Lee--Beating a guard senseless isn't a great idea (even if he has it coming). Unless you could make the case that you had reason to fear great bodily harm, you'd probably get charged with assault, possibly as a felony. Better to threaten to call the cops--this has worked for me more than once. If it doesn't work, of course, you need to follow through with the threat.

Richard,

When you get to One Bush, turn around to look at the Shell Building--it's the one reflected in Thomas Hawk's image.

Jeff,

Terry v. Ohio was ammended by the patriot act