Stopped by police....ended positively

Andrushka wrote in post #5430490
no - So-Cal style: you coulda accidently pointed your "potential firearm ( think about it- a DSLR has a long black barrel!) in their direction and you would have died in a hale of bullets...

Now THAT would be a negative outcome! stranger things have happened - for lesser cause...

(no offense intended to the fine men and women in law enforcement who are members here - im sure you are more cautious/reasonable than most)

Uh, point taken.

This reminds me of the time I was stopped at the Orange County Fair by a sheriff's deputy. I was using my 20D with a tripod photographing at night for a contest for the actual fair. He asked me to stop because any comercial use would infringe on the fair's copyright!

Since when did copyrights become a criminal matter for inforcement by the police? Should I be making calls and pressing charges when I see my pictures on someone else's website?

I wasn't about to tell the deputy that it wasn't any of his business, as I'm sure it wouldn't have ended well. I just told him yes sir and moved on. It was a big fair so I wasn't worried about running into him again.

ryant35 wrote in post #5437027
This reminds me of the time I was stopped at the Orange County Fair by a sheriff's deputy. I was using my 20D with a tripod photographing at night for a contest for the actual fair. He asked me to stop because any comercial use would infringe on the fair's copyright!

Since when did copyrights become a criminal matter for inforcement by the police? Should I be making calls and pressing charges when I see my pictures on someone else's website?

I wasn't about to tell the deputy that it wasn't any of his business, as I'm sure it wouldn't have ended well. I just told him yes sir and moved on. It was a big fair so I wasn't worried about running into him again.

Well, if the Fair's likeness is trademarked then no, you can't use the photos for commercial use. And being on private property means that they could prevent you from taking photographs on the grounds.

The only problem is that a photo contest is not a commercial use, it is an artistic use.

The officer was partly correct and mostly wrong.

The officer really only had the authority to tell you that you could not make photographs on the property, he was not enforcing any type of copyright law.