[IP] Re: More Silliness: Congressman Wants to Ban "Silent" Cell Phone Cameras

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Date: January 29, 2009 4:02:26 PM EST
To: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Cc: dave@farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] More Silliness: Congressman Wants to Ban "Silent"  
Cell Phone Cameras


John,

That article does nothing to indicate that this is a *significant  
problem*
in the U.S.  A bunch of photos?  Yeah, though probably all from a pretty
small group of losers.  A significant problem?  No.  Political
grandstanding?  For sure.

There's already a federal law against "virtual peeping" -- but there
are people who clearly would like to ban virtually all public
photography, with the aid of overzealous law enforcement, some of
whom would also probably just love to hear a telltale "beep" if
someone takes a candid photo of them during a questionable arrest.

The whole idea that making cellphones beep when taking pictures would
prevent creeps from being creeps is just ridiculous.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com

- - -

On 01/29 20:52, John Levine wrote:
> > There's no evidence that illicit "underskirting" photography is a
> > significant problem outside of Japan and Korea, ...
>
> This November article from Salon suggests otherwise:
>
> http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/11/25/upskirting/
>
> I'm not sure beeping cell phones are the solution, but there seems
> to be a lot of creeps around.
>
> R's,
> John




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