UK photography in public

The government are trying to make it illegal for any one to take photographs in public without a specific license. To me, this seems ridiculous. It will mean no photography at any outdoor events, of your friends in any public spaces, etc. How can this be justified?

let the debate begin....

there is a petition you can sign to try and stop them making this law (if they'll listen...)

petitions.pm.gov.uk...

Do you have a link you can post to the proposed law? It's hard to comment on it without knowing what it says.

yeah ill see what i can do, sorry as soon as someone gave me this link i thought people would want to comment, so posted it on here....

alright, i guess i was jumping the gun a bit, but i still think there is a good reason to sign the petition...

see here for some more details.


www.phooto.co.uk...

Well i've had a look around and could'nt find anything other than talk of this a couple of years ago in NYC.

I can imagine where they will be going with this though, probably a ban on photographing anywhere that could be a terror target....which is pretty much anywhere!

Many bases ban photography outside them, not sure about airfields. Next it will be trains and stations....a blow for the trainspotters of the world, airports, a blow for the plane spotters too!

I'll wait till i see a decent link first though before predicting the unimaginable.

I'm glad i live in the countryside, surely they would'nt ban photography of beautiful areas like this?

CX.

i'm guessing a ban in public generally would include the countryside, how would they define the difference between countryside/urban areas in a law?

There is no ban, nor is there any such proposal for a ban.

The guy that started the petition is saying that is worrisome that some professional photographers apparently can sign up for a license to be a photographer.

Ah i see now.....it's a kiddy thing. This i'm afraid is not a new thing.

Having kids myself i find myself frustrated with the restrictions on photography of kids, but then again they are imposed to stop the sicko's of this world, in which case i'm all for it.

I remember taking an underwater camera to the swimming pool to take some pics of my 3 month old baby daughter on her first swim. We were the only ones in the pool, but still the lifeguard approached us and said we should have got written authority 6 weeks in advance in order to use a camera.

Another pool localy bans cameras altogether apart from one or two official sports photographers. This is because wierdo's have in the past snapped kids then edited out thier costumes on the computer tp pass around. Sick!

So i can fully appreciate why there are rules in place when it comes to kids. Yes they can be a little restrictive at times, but the reasons behind it don't need too much explaining to see they are a good idea. Thats my opinion anyway.

CX.