Digital photography

bench shot is great.

Thanks

it could be you !

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Ha, I was thinking of you and your candid street photography as I read through the new law here in Germany that's coming into effect next month..

..basically mere taking pictures of others (as opposed to publishing them / showing them publically) without their written consent (which still is revokable any time) is then considered an (illegal) "collection of data".

Fun fact: taking pictures on film is still ok.

nice..

cept the whole world is a camera and the teeny cracks in between will soon be plastered over.
I was pinned to the ground by "security" in Putney exchange shopping center,taking pictures whithin would be illegal ,my camera was just hanging where it always is no pics....got a 100£
credit for waitrose as I was on there bit and spend a lot of money there.....suprised really that you can point a camera right in a persons boat on the street even a copper and no ones even allowed to check card. HA ....love the film thing.....very un-germanic

very un-germanic

..yes and no.. Kunstfreiheit is a fundamental right in Germany (short converse episode in the thirties, mind) so this is basically still going strong, there's just discrepancies with data / privacy protection issues nowadays
: ]

I didn't know that was the word, I always had it filed under "künstlerische Freiheit", but that's obviously something else!

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunstfreiheit

Very interesting, that law. How on Earth is it enforceable? Surely the way you put it there can't be an accurate description, e.g. how would you ever take pictures of family and friends, who presumably would quickly get fed up with giving their written consent every time, or, in the case of children, couldn't even do so? Or does it only apply to taking random pictures in the street?

It's certainly interesting that it only applies to digital photography. But would later scanning photos on film then turn them into 'illegal data'?

Ah, found it:

https://www.fotomagazin.de/praxis/fotorecht/fokus-fotorecht-neues-gesetz-fuer-strassenfotografen

That says the law was mainly aimed at exploitative photographs, designed to humiliate, made by teenagers of victims beaten up in the street. Also, it ostensibly only applies to 'helpless' persons. That seems to narrow it down a good deal. I can certainly understand why people are worried the law might be abused and stretched, though.

The article you linked to is from 2015.
There's a new law coming into effect 25.05.2018.
https://www.ipcl-rieck.com/allgemein/wissen-zur-dsgvo-7-tipps-fuer-fotografen.html

Ah, thanks. I checked a few 'law for photographers' sites in German and the other law wasn't reflected on them, so I thought it had merely had a longer lead-in time before it came into force.

That is indeed a very interesting general approach. Some of it I agree with, some I think is not thought through properly.

You're welcome.

Well it's ironic - since that new law comes into effect shortly after Espen Eichhöfer more-or-less successfully fought his crow-funded trial against a woman that he photographed years ago (and who claimed compensation for pain and suffering).. a photograph, taken on a busy corner in Berlin, that, according to the new law, would be illegal to take in the first place.

This all isn't set in stone and I figure there will be lots of debate this year,
but the simple truth is (apart from details like whether my picture shot on film is still legal when I scan it with a computer) that for the majority of people it will be 'fact' that they have the right not to be photographed without their written consent, so this will kill streetphotography in Germany even more.

Ta. I mean, I don't care much about street photography but I'm very interested in the creep of digitisation and virtualisation, and the excessively large exploitative companies associated with and driving that, and what people want to do about that, so it'll be interesting to watch.

Haven't you been Ren&Stimpy before?

Madness!

his crow-funded trial

Haven't you been Ren&Stimpy before?

Not sure what you are talking about!

Ha, successfully called out Roy&Siegfried for name repetition there. :)

Interesting (and English) article along the same lines here: https://www.co-berlin.org/en/watch-out

How will it work if you've taken a photo of something with a random passer by in the background ? If you post that photo on the internets, and the random passer by objects to it, can they then make you take it down and/or sue ?

I can imagine they'll be companies working on facial recognition software to scan through photos posted on social media.

Yes, and yes.

Interesting (and English) article along the same lines

This article is from 2015 as well.
It is reflecting the a-bit-unclear-situation right now. Like already mentioned this will all change dramatically next month.