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Legal Issues for Outside Webcams and Others Privacy?
Jesse Ferrell asks: "My neighbors are asking for me to remove my (weather) web cams from my website because they show part of their houses. Is there any legal precedent to a case like this? I can point the cameras upwards towards the sky more (they are weather cams of course) but it will take time and equipment, possibly modifications to my house. Have you ever heard of a similar situation? What should I do? I'll check the local ordinances and see what I come up with."
Agree, but this isn't the only thing to look at. The people next door have a "reasonable expectation of privacy". Also, As seen in recent Texas law findings, any "image capture device" attached to a structure (even inside you own home) needs to have a strong legal backing. Juries all over the US are convicting people for using a camera voyeuristically. It would not be that hard for the neighbor claim the camera was being used to capture them for "sexual purposes". In Texas all they would have to do, is
1) Identify the area that is exposed to the camera.
2) Walk into view of the camera.
3) Expose undergarments (make it look unintentional, yet non-random)
4) The other person in the house captures the image from the web site.
5) Call a lawyer.
None of this is fun and games. If the law upholds his right to have the camera, then who is to say that government "weather" cameras can't be trained in on someone's house, "coincidentally".
I am in favor of the right to point and shoot any thing I want, but let's think of the ramifications that a judgment in this area might have.