Inappropriate bahaviour

[Matthew_T]

Tonight I was watching my brother in a performance at a theatre. Unfortunately he was on at 7.05pm and we had to wait until 8.30 to collect him as we were advised to be respectful of the other performances.
At the start of the performance, the person introducing the groups stated "It is not permitted to film or take pictures of any of the performers".

The whole performance went along and we were (slowly) on the last peice, by a group of primary school children who were singing.
Immediately when they started singing, a woman in front of me got a camera out (not a small one) and started taking pictures. Not only did she take pictures of her sister, but she also caught pictures of 2 or 3 other children. I looked at my mother who was besides me and she had noticed what the woman was doing as well.
I attempted to get the womans attention by firstly pretending to cough, then I started just tapping the back of her chair when she got the camera out. None of this worked.

When the performance was over and we started to leave, I said to the woman "I hope you are going to delete those pictures". She turned around and looked at me with a face of surprise as I walked away with an angry face on me. I was not happy at all.

What exactly is the legal stance on such a situation? The woman has not got the parents' permission, everyone had been clearly told at the start that noone was allowed to take photos and the theatre is private land. So what is the legal and social side to this?

 

[marinyork]

The social side is that you shouldn't worry about such things. Blessed are the cheesemakers.

 

[MrJamie]

I think its sad that parents cant take pictures of their children in school plays, sports days and such on the offchance that someone there might be a pedo taking photos.

In your case, I would have guessed that it was just school policy to ban taking photos, Id doubt it was actually illegal to take photos, dunno though

 

[roadrash]

The social side is that you shouldn't worry about such things. Blessed are the cheesemakers.

i think he refers to any manufacturer of dairy products(big nose)

 

[ianrauk]

agree with the above. I would like to see someone stop me taking pics of my little one if in a play, playing sports or suchlike. It's bloody ridiculous and a travesty that people are not allowed to take pics of their siblings. It was never like this back when I was a kidda.

 

[roadrash]

^^^^ what he said^^^^

 

[snorri]

on the offchance that someone there might be a pedo taking photos.

It has little to do with paedos, it's the interference to the performance by some photographers spoiling the enjoyment for the rest of the audience.

 

[Night Train]

It has little to do with paedos, it's the interference to the performance by some photographers spoiling the enjoyment of the rest of the audience.

And also possible copyrights issues depending on the nature of the performance.

The theatre where I performed banned cameras and video for just these reasons. Official photos/video can be viewed on their website.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

"I hope you are going to delete those pictures".

Difficult one, having worked as a photographer and having had to put up with people telling me what I can and cannot do due to their silly rules which have absolutely NO grounding in law, and having heard the actual words quoted above before, I probably would have witheringly ignored you too. Sorry. Ok, I wouldn't take many pictures, but one or two isn't going to hurt, and in the great scheme of things, who cares? You have a record of your kid!

Now, I realise it is due to the disruption, Yes, I get it, and I would try and do it as subtly as possible or at the very best moment, I.e. the noisiest bit, etc, but really, a lot of these rules are not worth the paper they are written on, seriously, I have been there, done that, got the t - shirt, flag, amusing novelty hat and brochure.

It has little to do with paedos, it's the interference to the performance by some photographers spoiling the enjoyment for the rest of the audience.

Really? With all the 'Peadofear' out there, you could have fooled me!

If you have a camera, then in the eyes of some, you are either a Peado or a terrorist. FACT

 

[Night Train]

I think that there should also be a level of respect involved.

If people are asked not to take photos then they should respect that where reasonable.
I was a bit annoyed that Granada studios used my stage backdrop in Coronations street without my permission.

 

[CopperCyclist]

I appreciate it's not a school, but interestingly when I got married the vicar requested that people not take photos. He clarified there was nothing illegal in the doing so, and if they did he would carry on but simply suggested they were a distraction.

However, he went on to say that apparently filming video was illegal as it breached some sort of copyright laws, so he had to insist on no video.

 

[growingvegetables]

It has little to do with paedos, it's the interference to the performance by some photographers spoiling the enjoyment for the rest of the audience.

+1 - and photographer parents distracting/disrupting/destroying the kids' performance.

Ask anybody involved in children performing music. A mate tells of one of his pupils bursting into tears in the middle of her guitar piece - turned out mother had promised NOT to film it, but conspicuously went ahead anyway.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I think that there should also be a level of respect involved.

If people are asked not to take photos then they should respect that where reasonable.

The key words there being 'Where reasonable'.

The only people these rules respect are the silly little jobs worths who make them up in the first place.

I was a bit annoyed that Granada studios used my stage backdrop in Coronations street without my permission.

Sorry to hear that, and yes, that's bad, but as someone else has already pointed out, the likelihood of the woman's pictures being used for anything more than a couple of family snaps is practically nill.

We'll have to agree to disagree here, but seriously, one of the reasons why I don't do photography any more is because of all the hassle I got from ill informed people, trying to tell me what I could and could not do. The MET actually were the worst, if you were to beleive them, then the laws must have changed every few minutes, they really DIDN'T have a clue!

Think of it as being like a driver telling you that you should only be on the Cyclepath or that you don't pay r*** **x, and therefore you have absolutely no rights whatsoever. Gets irritating after a while, doesn't it?

 

[marinyork]

Matthew_T I hope you enjoyed it. I expect you did (the performance, not the confrontation), but you don't need to worry about the other things. I don't mean this in a nasty way, I am just saying. Worry about something else, worry about cycling, in fact don't worry about cycling to uni later this year just do it. Take it as a life lesson as something we all do wrong too in worrying about the wrong things. If this is an important performance for your brother you will not be remembering in a few years time the person with the camera. You don't need to ask what the social side to a performance with a sibling is. The social side is for people to perform, people to enjoy it and to bring people together. There isn't an inalienable right to go to performances and fall out with people.

Watch The Life of Brian if you've never seen it before .

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Incidentally, I have no idea what the current legislation is, if indeed it has changed, but I doubt it will be much different.