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German Photog Wants to Shoot Buildings Excluded From Street View
crf00 writes with this report excerpted from Blogoscoped: "'Spiegel reports that German photographer and IT consultant Jens Best wants to personally take snapshots of all those (German) buildings which people asked Google Street View to remove. He then wants to add those photos to Picasa, including GPS coordinates, and in turn re-connect them with Google Maps. Jens believes that for the internet 'we must apply the same rules as we do in the real world. Our right to take panoramic snapshots, for instance, or to take photographs in public spaces, both base laws which determine that one may photograph those things that are visible from public streets and places.' Jens says that for his belief in the right of photographing in public places, as last resort he's even willing to go to jail. Spiegel says Jens already found over 200 people who want to help out in this project and look for removed locations in Google Street View, as there's no official list of such places published by Google."
The "Google Opt Out Village" was disturbing enough.
This Google mafia stuff is really getting quite frightening.
Just because someone doesn't want the building on street view is no reason to shoot it. What's next, hand grenades against people complaining about Google's privacy practices?
I suppose let the buyer beware... once you ask Google to remove your place from streetview, make sure to wear a bullet proof vest at all times.