Whose photo is it anyway? Privacy of subjects of photography subjects

“Australia must begin to seriously consider the law-reform question of how best to protect the private rights of photographed subjects.”

Or so says an article by Jessica Lake a doctoral student at Melbourne University in her thesis “Privacy and the Pictures”. The article after making interesting comments on the development of privacy law issues with respect to photographs. (particularly photos of women), looks at the use and misuse of pictures in Social Media like Facebook and at issues around images of women as they have developed in the US.

As Lake points out “One approach is to tackle ‘privacy’ law reform, but we could also look more closely at the operation of property law, particularly copyright, that automatically awards rights to an image to the photographer" rather "than the individual photographed"?

Indeed why shouldn't a ‘scantily clad’ woman be able to assert property rights for images of herself taken without permission. To quote Lake this anomaly "seem to remain so inexhaustibly fascinating?” Indeed even where the scantly clad woman is a future monarch of England caught without consent in a private moment.

The notion that people's photographic images can be used freely without little or no right to protest or prevent it seems a gross oversight by the legal system. Certainly property law in the form of copyright rather than pivacy law would seem to offer a better solution. Property being held by the subject of the photograph rather than the photographer is a solution to the problem of images being misused.

Guilt by Association Can Get You Sued: Google and Defamation

An Australian jury has found Google liable for damages following on a successful defamation action by a Melbourne man who argued that he had been defamed by the Search engine after it linked him wrongly to gangland crime. The man aged 62 claimed Google’s web and image search results had caused damage to his reputation such as to give rise to his action. The 62 year old  had already won a related case against Yahoo.

The facts giving rise to the case occurred in 2004, when the man was shot in the back by a man wearing a balaclava (a crime which was never solved). As a result of the attack a Google search for the man brings up images of other people who appeared in news reports and the man claims the pictures show murderers and a drug trafficker which could lead users to believe he was a criminal and could injure his reputation.

As a result of the suit Google was forced to cough up more than $200,000 in damages.

This case is certainly an interesting development and could open many other plausible assaults on the Google and other search engine providers, especially in these days when the first place people seek information about you is in a search engine like Google, Yahoo, Seek or even social media sites like Facebook and Linked Inn.

It becomes interesting to consider at what point in the context of the internet is the individual responsible for his fate and at what point does the Internet Service, Search Engine or Service become liable.

There is No Such Thing as a Private Remark

"What these continual eruptions are doing is they are putting people on notice that there is no such thing as a private remark anymore."

The above is a quote from a comment by Media Expert Jane Caro on the backlash that has recently been heaped on shock jock Alan Jones when he went too far even for him and the residents of Sydney or "Jones Town" reacted mostly through social media to let him know that his trashing of the female Prime Minister had gone to far.

The point is that people who make a public living out of public speaking need to realize that no matter how small the audience no matter how partisan the crowd it is no longer as easy or possible to brush off or play down what is or might have been said. Now by way of a smart phone all present at such speaking events have access to a camera and a recording device and the means to upload and make such supposedly "private comments" making them matters of publicly recorded fact in minutes,

In other words the days when the shock jock or the politician was the only one with access to the ability to publish are long gone. As Mitt Romney the US Republican Candidate recently discovered you may think you are talking to a room where you think none of the 47% you consider don't care for your views are not listening but you can be very certain they will hear about it these days.

People often talk about greater accountability for social media but in my view social media in a way is promoting greater accountability, It is requiring people in the public eye to exercise greater caution not through fear of inane industry regulation but through fear of public opinion and social retribution through posts to Twitter, Facebook and more and more places evolving on the web. It will be interesting to see how these trends develop.

The Smoke of War

"Blue is the Smoke of War,
White the Bones of Man”

…a haiku by Japanese 3rd century poet Pu Ui captures in a few words the desolation and the stench of war in few words and large images. It proves that throughout history there has never be a grand our purposeful battle, a war that could be viewed with favour.

Likewise Herotdous the Greek historian captured the cost of war when he writes …

"Peace is when sons bury fathers; War is when fathers bury sons..”

These are words of relevance these few days after five more Australian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. Again this conflict that was intended to be a quickly carried out mission to capture Bin Ladin has now drawn out 10 years and gone far past it's original purpose. A purpose completed last year in Pakistan (a completely different country) last year by US soldiers not involved in Afgahnistan. It seems fair to ask wh is his conflict continuing? Are we like the Russians before us deluding ourselves thinking Afgahnistan is a place that can be westernized and tamed into a Western style democracy. Will Australia linger with the Americans so long in Afgahnistan that it will see the same result for its efforts as was sen in Vietnam - a loss of face and embarrassing withdrawal having to admit defeat.

Time to end it!
This long and protracted war was never intended to continue for the ten long years. To some it may seem like some form of back down to say its time to leave but for many who recall prior and like encounters, for example: Korea and Vietnam it is exactly the kind of stubbornness that persists to the bitter end that cost even more in needless waste of life and loss of belief in democracy,

When the Tide Turns

There is a story about the English King who stood at the edge of the ocean and spoke to the rising tide ordering it to go back from where it came. This was done by the wise king because he wanted to show his subjects that some things are even beyond the power of kings to turn back,

Yet it seems the leadership of our nation believe that it is not only plausible to regulate the tide of humanity seeking lives better than those they escaped in their own lands. They believe that being less than humane and imprisoning people in detention centers will stem the tide of refugees. The reality is that it will not. Many will simply take the view that being in a detention centre simply puts them one step closer to their desired place of refuge and they will continue to come any way. They know that as it did before under the Howard Government detention on Nauru will simply result in the eventual granting of entry to Australia.

Onshore processing and quick open treatment of asylum seekers is the right and decent way to handle asylum seekers. It's what we agreed to under our international treaty obligations and we as our nation should honor our agreements.

The Lost Xmas Episode of the X Filles

I always loved the premise of the X Files most of all because the show took itself so seriously. This is a really funny send up of it which I have posted before but thought it was worth a rerun:

Mulder: We're too late. It's already been here.

Scully: Mulder, I hope you know what you are doing.

Mulder: Look, Scully, just like the other homes: Douglas fir, truncated, mounted, transformed into some sort of shrine; halls decked with boughs of holly; stockings hung by the chimney, with care.

Scully: You really think someone's been here?

Mulder: Someone or some thing.

Scully: Mulder, over here--it's fruitcake.

Mulder: Don't touch it! Those things can be lethal.

Scully: It's O. K. There's a note attached: "Gonna find out who's naughty and nice. "

Mulder: It's judging them, Scully. It's making a list.

Scully:Who? What are you talking about?

Mulder: Ancient mythology tells of an obese humanoid entity who could travel at great speed in a craft powered by antlered servants. Once each year, near the winter solstice, this creature is said to descend from the heavens to reward its followers and punish its disbelievers with jagged chunks of anthracite.

Scully: But that's legend, Mulder - a story told by parents to frighten children. Surely, you don't believe it?

Mulder: Something was here tonight, Scully. Check out the bite marks on this gingerbread man. Whatever tore through this plate of cookies was massive - and in a hurry.

Scully: It left crumbs everywhere. And look, Mulder, this milk glass has been completely drained.

Mulder: It gorged itself, Scully. It fed without remorse.

Scully: But why would they leave it milk and cookies?

Mulder: Appeasement. Tonight is the Eve, and nothing can stop its wilding.

Scully: But if this thing does exist, how did it get in? The doors and windows were locked. There's no sign of forced entry.

Mulder: Unless I miss my guess, it came through the fireplace.

Scully: Wait a minute, Mulder. If you are saying some huge creature landed on the roof and came down the chimney, you're crazy. The flue is barely six inches wide. Nothing could get through there.

Mulder: But what if it could alter its shape, move in all directions.

Scully: You mean, like a bowl full of jelly?

Mulder: Exactly. Scully, I've never told anyone this, but when I was a child my home was visited. I saw the creature. It had long white strips of fur surrounding its ruddy, misshapen head. Its bloated torso was red and white. I'll never forget the horror. I turned away, and when I looked back it had somehow taken on the facial features of my father.

Scully: Impossible.

Mulder: I know what I saw. And that night it read my mind. It brought me a Mr. Potato Head,

Scully: IT KNEW I WANTED A MR. POTATO HEAD.

Scully: I'm sorry, Mulder, but you're asking me to disregard the laws of physics. You want me to believe in some supernatural being who soars across the skies and brings gifts to good little girls and boys. Listen to what you are saying. Do you understand the repercussions? If this gets out, they'll close the X-files.

Mulder: Scully, listen to me: It knows when you are sleeping. It knows when you're awake.

Scully: But we have no proof.

Mulder: Last year, on this exact date, S. E. T. I. radio telescopes detected bogeys in the airspace over twenty-seven states. The White House ordered a Condition Red.

Scully: But that was a meteor shower.

Mulder: Officially. Two days ago, eight prized Scandinavian reindeer vanished from the National Zoo in Washington, D. C. Nobody - not even the zookeeper - was told about it. The government doesn't want people to know about Project Kringle. They fear that if this thing is proved to exist, then the public would stop spending half its annual income in a holiday shopping frenzy. Retail markets will collapse. Scully, they cannot let the world believe this creature lives. There's too much at stake. They'll do whatever it takes to insure another silent night.

Scully: Mulder, On the roof. It sounds like... a clatter.

Mulder: The truth is up there. Let's see what's the matter..."

Eurovision a Quick Primer

Having been invited to my first Eurovision Song Contest Party I thought I'd do some quick research.

Apparently it all started in the 1950s. As part of rebuilding war-torn Europe the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), based in Switzerland, set up an ad-hoc committee to search for ways of bringing together the countries of the EBU around a "light entertainment program". At a committee meeting held in Monaco in January 1955, director general of Swiss television and committee chairman Marcel Bezençon conceived the idea of an international song contest where countries would participate in one television programme, to be transmitted simultaneously to all countries of the union.

The competition was to be similar to the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy. It was seen also as a technological experiment in live television. In those days it was a very ambitious project to join many countries together in a wide-area international network. 

The concept, then known as originally as the "Eurovision Grand Prix", was approved by the EBU General Assembly in at a meeting held in Rome on 19 October 1955.

The first contest took place in spring 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland.

The current name "Eurovision" was first used in relation to the EBU's network by British journalist George Campey in the London Evening Standard in 1951.

As to who has won it the most? Surprisingly Ireland holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest seven times—including three times in a row in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

France, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom are joint second with five wins.

Now that give me a little insight.