Photographer as criminal: redux

Haven't we talked about this before?

Come to think of it, this happened to me a few years back taking photos at the McCormick Place Annex. I was pretty sure they were wrong then, and I'm sure they're wrong now. There's all sorts of things you can claim:

• Fair Use: I'm doing it for a non-profit purpose, or I'm going to use it in a piece of criticism or in a parody.


• Public space: the copyright holder has to take some measures to protect the work from abuse--putting it in a park sort of obviates that, doesn't it?


• Economic harm: me taking pictures of the sculpture doesn't economically harm the sculptor unless I'm selling products that he's als selling.