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."

Comments

Why bring up legal?

[Unknown Poltroon]

Your neighbors asked you to point them somewhere else. They havent taken you to court, they havent threatened to sue. Why wouldn't you? So it will take a little effort on your part. So what. Do you dislike your neighbors that much? We spend so much time on slashdot bitching about stupid laws, but its stuff like this that gets the stupid laws put into place. People arent willing to make what seems like a reasonable concesssion, so next year therel be local law that says you ant leave an unattened camera filming someone elses property that will take years to get rid of, if we can.

It's legal unless there is a local ordinance

[zenyu]

But he might just be asking for a curtesy, maybe he likes walking around naked in his apartment and doesn't want his co-workers looking at the web page obsesively trying to get a good look. Maybe just positioning it differently will appease him. If you live in a co-op with him he might be able to get you to take it down entirely by appealing to the board. Besides curtesy is underrated, if you can make him happy without ruining the camera view why not?

There might also be a technological solution, blur the portions of the images that show windows before sending them out as a web cam.

Panasonic Unitized Cameras

[renehollan]

IIRC, Panasonic makes unitized pan-tilt-zoom video cameras that allow for blocking out selected parts of an image, like windows of other buildings (and given the degree of zoom available, this is a good thing).

While such cameras are expensive (approx. US$1500), and provide aanalog RS-170 video which would have to be digitized, and not exactly "web" cams, if you point your cam at a fixed point, perhaps you could use software to blur out any of your neighbors' windows or other "sensitive" areas.

I'd talk to a lawyer, find out what you can do (probably a lot, unless you're shooting into their windows, or fenced-in yard), and then suggest reasonable blurring of possibly sensitive portions. IOW, offer to go above and beyond what you have to do, as a gesture of goodwill, and it this isn't good enough, send them a lawyers' letter to stop the harassment.

Re:There is no problem

[tenman]

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.

Public places, expectation of privacy.

[stienman]

You are wrangling with something that ought to be discussed with legal counsel. It may be in your best interest to re-aim the camera, and/or use the computer to blur/black/remove/annotate portions of the picture that your neighbors object to. (ie, black out the house and put in small print: "Smelly people" or some such nonsense. Not wise, nor kind, but funny all the same.)

That being said - video recording laws are being changed, but in most states, right now, you can record pretty much anything to video (NOT AUDIO) in any place, public or private with few exceptions.

If want to stand your ground, you might at least try to be courteous and safe. Point out that your camera doesn't see into private yards, and through windows. Point out that everything you can see on camera can be seen by a person from a similar vantage point, and that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy from a person, camera, or any viewing device similarily mounted.

Once you've done that, change the view anyway and very subtly imply that any view that includes them is ruined, or you've seen all of them that you care to see. Or you could be really mean and publish as much info about them on your page as is legally allowed, maybe some extra pictures, notes about their appearance and behavior. That'll get them really riled up.

You might want to think about the flip side, though. Right now some thief could be watching their coming/going and making a schedule of when they are home, when they aren't, how they typically secure their home, etc. It could be some pedophile sitting in front of their computer waiting to see when their kid is home.

You ought to ask yourself, do you value your privacy in public places? Do you like the idea of video cameras everywhere? Perhaps these neighbors are avid readers of Slashdot and they love the YRO section. They may simply be expressing their desire for more public privacy.

-Adam

But why be a bastard about it.

[gaudior]

They asked. It's no big deal. If my hobby infringes on my neighbors sensitivities, then I should modify my behaviour, as a good neighbor.

They aren't asking anything unreasonable.