[Air-L] on the Wayback Machine (was public/private [part 1 of 2])

[Lois Ann Scheidt]

> Because all your questions center around issue (a), I'll respond to
> that. IMO, the recent upsets about Google Map's streetview pictures
> adequately demonstrate that real-world expression or behaviors are
> indeed being documented without informed consent of the "subjects." My
> personal take on the matter is that the Google vans, which cruise
> streets, snapping pictures and sewing them together to make an ideally
> seamless electronic visual representation of a street, are only
> photographing what is already public. There was a fuss made by a woman
> who complained that her cat was visible in peering out the window of her
> apartment. This constituted an invasion of privacy for her. I've heard
> people say things like, "What's next? Soon the Google vans will be
> peering in through open windows and reading book titles off our
> shelves!" (See here:
> http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/30/google_maps_is_spyin.html)

Not to mention the potential embarrassment to the gentleman from 
Arizona - I think it was Arizona - who was captured sitting on a park 
bench picking his nose.  The potential embarrassment would be increased 
- at least in some writers estimation - because all the late night talk 
show hosts pointed directly at this guy in their monologues...even 
giving the URL in some cases.

HOWEVER, since the action in question - said nose picking - took place 
in public and was captured and posted on the web...the late night talk 
show hosts might have been shining a brighter light on the whole thing 
but they were not adding to the potential audience.


Lois