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Depressing really, but the way the world is probably heading.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-15236758

Good. But do you think that would have happened had there not been a ground swell of public opion using Facebook to boycott the shopping centre several week before the build-up to Christmas? I suspect if this was in April and not October an apology would be less forthcoming and swift.

I got stopped photographing at Braehead last year when I was standing outside, at the back of the centre with my back to the Mall photographing across the river. I carry the letter from ACPOS informing 'whom it may concern'  of my rights, but as heavy clouds were appearing, I decided not to waste the energy.

Really, sod asses like the security oik and the mindless police in this story. Not to mention the shopping centre's no-photos policy itself.

Sure, it's private property and the owners can make the rules, but there's a bigger picture here and that's the remorseless encroachment of the private sector on what used to be public space. Shopping centres of this kind have destroyed old town centres and main streets across the developed world.

Now we live not only under the laws of the land but also under the arbitrary restrictions of petty tyrants. It's a civil rights issue in the broadest sense -- how we would like to live our lives and under what conditions.

True, but the usual public-place liberties could very well be legislated to apply in such privately owned places, in much the same way as public rights of way trump private land ownership in the English countryside. Shopping centres are after all the de facto town squares of our time.

Looks like common sense has prevailed at last.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-15251848

Problem is, in the USA it's common practice and any privately owned building, shopping center, grocery store, whatever, can forbid you to take pictures. I'm so used to it, I just don't try to take pictures in private buildings, or if I do sneak some and they stop me, I just shut up and leave.

The same part is, they can't take your camera or your pictures or make you erase them. We do have some rights.

Always cracks me up when I see the one about the guy at the Amtrak station, who by the way was a ticket holding passenger, who got busted for taking photographs on the platform and later it came out he was shooting for the Amtrak photo contest that they were running for PR. Oh nice move Mr. Rent-A-Cop.

Also the whole public land private land is far different here. It was nice being in GB and walking across a field to get to a historic site (we did ask the farmer of course) and not having everything "No Trespassing" or private property. Nice and open. Might as well flip to the other side. National Trust locks photographers out and forbids images or at least selling them. In the US, if it's owned by the taxpayers money, you can shoot there and you own it. Yes I understand NT is not taxpayer funded.

Some good in the UK some good in the US. We each have pluses and minuses.

These cases of people getting arrested, charged, stopped, or told wrong information about their rights, are not limited to just us. Fortunately we both have more freedom than some other countries where one might just get shot for taking pictures and no questions asked. So while it can be kind of irritating, it's not like ruthless dictators or some other places where it's far worse!