Effjayess Loc: NE,Pennsylvania

I have a dear friend that took some shots of people sitting on benches and walking in a public park from a roof top. The camera had a long zoom 500mm so they were close up,very close up.the big mistake was the person PP and archived on a work PC. Now how many times have we heard that workplace PCs are on a network that is monitored by IT departments. Long story short the pics were viewed as voyeuristic,covert,disturbing and pornographic.
Now keep in mind public park at noontime. Well the person lost their job and may be charged with some type of offense????????? What i cant imagine.The message to you all fellow UHHers is only photographers seem to understand street photography and more importantly a workplace PC is NOT for your eyes only. Be careful.

robert-photos Loc: Chicago

Do not use your PC at work for personal business without permission....it is not yours but the company's property along with the internet connection, software, etc. Stealing office supplies is also not honest. :thumbdown:

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

I would doubt the nature of the images had much bearing on the firing. I would think that getting caught playing around with personal business on company time had a lot more to do with it! Sounds like your "friend" is playing you for a little sympathy to me and not quite relating the entire story here.

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

The camera was his. The time, the computer, the internet, the storage was not his.

In addition, roof top looking down. Did anyone give him permission to shoot down a blouse from above. What was the subject of his 'shoot'.

Better get the whole story and all the information.

Nuff said

Sarge

ShooterOR

Agree. As a supervisor who is held responsible for the productivity of the staff who report to me, I have little sympathy.

Effjayess Loc: NE,Pennsylvania

My sentiments exactly,I saw the pics from the camera card pre pp I thought they were pretty benign certainly not lewd but I'm pretty broad minded as far as that goes. So I guess I agree with the IT company policy violation. I just can't under stand a "crime" I saw a posting here once where a whole camera club got shirts made that said " photography is not a crime" because of some people shooting at some type of emergency scene were hassled by guards or police it was a while back mb someone saw it.

Effjayess Loc: NE,Pennsylvania

I just hate the thought of a "say cheese" mentality, the whole concept of candid photography would be faulted.

R'laine Loc: Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

Agreed!

WNYShooter Loc: WNY

I suppose that the company could file charges against them for theft of company services, but that would be quite the stretch, and pretty ridiculous on the company's part.

The fact is, there is some pretty amazing employee/computer surveillance software out there and a lot of companies use them. Where I work, they actually send department managers a weekly report showing historical usage data for each person in their departments. The report tracks internet pages viewed, sites visited, external and internal storage device usage, pages printed, and a couple of other stats. They are supposed to step on the necks of anybody who is exceeding the averages. The managers and IT also have the ability to spy on any employee desktop anytime they wish. Oh and get this, our employees also get to go over a report of our individual computer usage, with our department manager and direct supervisor, at our annual review--that one is always fun. O.o

My wife's place is even more restrictive. They don't allow ANY personal usage of the work computers. Instead, they keep a bunch of the retired office computers and printers scattered around the break areas, public areas, as well as a few near the supervisors & the employees have to log into those to do personal stuff, if they need to do so at work. Their policy even extends to the supervisors and managers, which she is one. They force anyone caught to take a day off, without pay if they don’t have any vacation or sick time left to burn.

4ellen4 Loc: GTA--Ontario

I do not know what the laws are regarding the use of photographs--but there is there is something to do with personal privacy and know that at 1 time you had to get a person's written permission to use their image in a photograph

As far as the work place--common sense is that one does not use a work place computer for personal use
and it is the age of BIG BROTHER WATCHING

I am very sorry for this person and their family but this is an issue that we as photographers need to be very careful about

Paco Loc: West Coast, Fl

I like the company's thoughts here, where they provide separate computers and printers in special areas for it's employees, if they NEED to use them. and their policy is a very fair one if caught, I feel. I came from a company where you couldn't sneeze without authorization.

GDRoth Loc: Southeast Michigan USA

I never thought "street photography" included super-long telephotos from rooftops............seems strange to start with...

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

Unless this person is mentally challenged and didn't know better, it's very difficult to feel sympathy for him/her.

Toby

MT Shooter AMEN

fabians Loc: Glendale, AZ

I believe the rules are you need a model release if the person you are shooting can be recognized in the photo and you are selling your photographs. Shooting people does not require a model release if all your photo's are for personal use.