GONE IN MINUTES Ch 5
Written by Vandemonium1
Edited by CreativityTakesCourage
Just another quickie. No idea where this one came from.
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THE SCENE. It's a glorious spring day and the educational consultant has walked the Year 11 photography elective class to the local park. Cameras in hand, they're sitting on the grass in a circle around the professional photographer.
"Now then, guys and gals, we've spent the last two semesters discussing the technical aspects of photography. In other words, you've learned how to take a photograph with artistic intent instead of just using the automatic function. Now I want to discuss copyright and legal issues."
The class grumbled, they'd been looking forward to spending an hour in the sun, they could have gone over this shit in the classroom and not had to walk the seven blocks to the park.
"First, copyright. If you take a photograph on a company camera, in company time, the company owns the copyright. If it's your camera, in your time, you do. If it's your camera in company time, well, copyright ownership gets a little hazy, okay?"
The class nodded. It all seemed straight forward.
"Now, exactly what and who are you allowed to photograph and under what circumstances?" The consultant didn't wait for any guesses from the group.
"Well, here's a few examples. You can take a photo of those kids playing over there, but you can't publish them for profit without getting their parent's permission. Technically you can't even publish them on social media, but the courts in this country have never bothered enforcing that one. Now, can anyone tell me the legality of, say, taking a photo of someone through a window of that motel over there?"
The students automatically turned to look at the edge of the park, a stone's throw away. On the other side of a car park a double height row of rooms, the peeling paint on its façade highlighting its age, basked under the sign of a cheap motel franchise. The general consensus was that it would be an invasion of privacy to shoot through a window. The teacher agreed, pointing out that while it wasn't technically illegal to take the shot, publishing it anywhere, including on social media would land the taker in deep poop unless they received the subject's approval. He glanced at his watch.
"Now, let's do a little exercise. Remain seated but form line facing the motel. Have your cameras ready. I want you to take a photograph of the next person or people you see across that carpark. Alternatively, you can set your camera to continuous shooting mode and take several. This is a technique often used by both paparazzi photographers and sports photographers. After you've taken the shots we'll discuss which ones you can do what with."
The class did as directed, many exchanging sly grins. It wasn't often they were given permission for a little voyeurism. A cleaner wheeled a cart in front of one of the rooms, let herself in and disappeared. The sound of expensive cameras clicked and whirred. It was a fairly exclusive school in a wealthy suburb and none of the parents wanted their child to be seen with anything but a professional grade camera and lens system. At this time of day there were only a smattering of cars in the carpark.
At almost precisely 1:50 p.m. one of the ground floor doors opened and a snappily dressed man stepped out, adjusting his tie. He turned in the doorway and kissed the partly clad woman behind him, passionately and for several seconds. Out of earshot, twenty-four cameras clicked and whirred. The woman hastily closed the motel room door while the man turned and strode to what looked to be a late model SUV. Some of the students continued to capture his progress even after he backed out of the parking spot and drove away.
The students lowered their cameras and stared at each other incredulously. Through the viewfinders most of them had recognised Mr. Butterworth, their Headmaster, and Ms. O'Connor, one of the school's English teachers. They were too stunned to speak. The photography consultant filled the silence.
"What a fantastic example. Now, who can show me some pictures and tell me what you can and can't do with them?"
One of the students, whose camera had a large viewing screen, thrust it at the teacher who glanced at the display and described it to the others.
"An excellent example. Great framing of the shot, Thomas. The photo shows two people embracing and kissing in the doorway. The man is clearly just outside the room, in a public space, as are we. The, er, lady is just inside the room, in private property. So, taking photographs of the man is perfectly legitimate, however, if you try to profit from the shots you may well find yourself in legal hot water. You could publish them on social media and the man could get them removed with a court injunction but if you're sued you'll be making history."
He watched most of the class as they practically salivated, wanting the teacher to shut up so they could post the juicy gossip as quickly as possible.
"Now, unless you delete the shots of the woman, clearly an invasion of her privacy, you could be in deep shit legally. If anyone got a shot of when her breast was exposed by her unbuttoned blouse and tries to publish it, even on social media, you'll be in all sorts of pain under the public decency laws."
The majority of the class groaned in disappointment then quickly reviewed their own captures to see if they'd caught the breast of their good-looking English teacher.
"Unless, of course, the, er, lady in question grants her permission for them to be published. Does anyone want to ask her?"
Many of the students had been taught by Ms. O'Connor for several years and she'd sent more than one of them for detention. Just about all hands went up.
