Archive for August, 2009
Freedom. Who needs it?
Freedom. Who needs it?
Obviously not most people in the western world. They keep demanding less freedom, and they support the punishment of freedom, and taking freedom away.
Why?
Because they feel safer if there’s less freedom. The media and the governments hype up fears about terrorism and other criminal activities, and encourage people to believe that freedom comes at the price of… well, freedom.
It blows my mind that people can so naively believe that they will be free when they have no freedom. But there’s one serious flaw in their desires to limit freedom.
The only people it affects are law-abiding citizens. Terrorists and criminals operate outside the law. They always have, and they always will. So how will imposing greater restrictions on the general populace help prevent criminals from doing what they do?
Laws about photography in public
As so often happens, I write some good stuff when I email with friends (sometimes even strangers!). Today’s example is the below information about photography laws in Australia, which I thought I’d turn into a blog post as well.
There’s a lot of people in Australia that think it’s illegal to take photos of people in public, without their permission. It’s actually not.
Photographing you in public is the same as being able to look at you in public. If they can see you and you have no expectation of privacy, then they can take photos of you. They can even publish your photo on the web or in books. The only restriction is that they cannot use your photo to sell something without your permission. They can use your photo in a model shoot without your permission, but they cannot use your photo in line with men’s aftershave, for example. (It is also illegal to use photos of people taken in public in ways that can demean or defame those people.)
My first blog award
A few weeks ago I was notified that I had won 6th place in the Australia / New Zealand Travel Blog Awards. At first I thought I’d received yet another spam email, but after a quick look and then a longer look, I realised it was actually legitimate!
I’ve placed a permanent image link over on the right of the blog that shows the award.
Thank you to Tripbase for finding my blog worthy of an award! And I also have to thank you, the readers, for helping me make this blog into what it is.
