um...since when?
 

well, most of the 4 years that i've had my own digital cameras, part of the fun of going out with friends was taking pics of each other and stuff. no one complained to us.

well in july we went in hot toppic and got yelled at for taking video of EACH OTHER. not customers, not merchendise by it's self. just trying to have fun.

well since then litterally every place that i've been to and taken video in before, have all yelled at us they we're not allowed to take pics and further won't give us a reasonable explination.

further more, if this is a rule that's been in place for ever, why are there no signs saying 'no photography'? i'm quite frankly angry with this.

i'd really like to write a letter to the head quarters of every store that i've been yelled at in for taking photos and complain. they have other signs up, why not "no camera's"?

so far the list that really annoyes me:

the halloween store
hottopic
starbucks

has this happened to you? do you think i should start a petition? i mean i've been doing this in front of employees for 4+ years now and they've only rescently said something about it. i say this takes away freedom of expression. we're allowed to be watched by sevalience cameras but we're not allowed to make videos of ourselves? even when i spend $100+ a month at hottopic and star bucks, and sometimes over $300 a year at the halloween store alone?

Well, I also agree that it's ridiculous that the stores do that. But, I can also see why they wouldn't allow that. It could get the employees in trouble for people goofing around in their stores. Some stores don't like people having cameras out, since they don't want you to take pictures of the merchandise. They don't really know if you are really taking pictures of each other, or their merchandise. But it could also irritate some customers that come into the store, who just want to get what they want, and get out. And they don't want anyone in the store goofing off. But you've got to understand the stores reasons for doing that. Though I'd say that it's best if you get permission to take pictures around the store first.

i think they do it make sure people aren't taking pictures of they're security systems or displays or stuff like that

The only excuse I ever got was that they are afraid that you work for a competitor and they are afraid you are stealing their ideas or the way they place their items. (I thought that was utter BS).

I mean if they are afraid you are stealing their ideas you could just as easily buy one outfit, copy it at home and return it. And I never saw the big deal about the store layout. I'm not more likely to buy the shirt if its in one corner as compared to the other. I really don't get it myself either.

I do know that its everywhere, even Walmart. I once saw a lady get kicked out of Walmart because she was taking pictures. I have no idea if her story was true, but she said she was merely taking pictures to show her special needs class examples of stores on their lesson about shopping.

We talked about this in my photography class a few weeks ago.

Stores aren't public property. They are private. You have to ask permission on private property. In public property, you can take a photo of whatever basically.

Some of my classmates were told to put up their cameras or take it out to their car for taking photos of people in a mall by security.

The 'protecting the merchandise' shit is silly; if that were true, you wouldn't be able to go to hottopic.com and zoom in on 14 hi-res photos of a t-shirt they post for you to see before you buy it. I wonder what the real reason is.

It's also the case that in reality it is against the law because if you managed to get a photo of someone behind you cheating on a girlfriend or something it can be a potential black mail situation. I know this is not your intention, and why you'd ever pay attention to it.. but say if you posted it online and the people in the background or the boy/girlfriend can land in a lot of trouble etc. and it's taking photo's of them without their permission, whether in background or not .. that leaves the liability of them suing you. It's all rather confusing business and I don't understand it too much.. but this is one of the reasons you can't take photo's in restaurants in specific.. Clothing places I would think it's just a concern of the merchandise and such but.. I don't know.

yea... good point

too add even more to this. you may accidentally catch a photo of a child whos been taken away from an abusive home or somebody whos in hiding. you post that pic up and now who eve is stalking them can find out what town there in.

Good addition. :yes:

I used to work in the mall, at a furniture store. And we would not let people come in and take pictures in the store. We had a lot of different reasons, but at the of the day it's just whatever the company owner wished. Some stores don't care at all, and some do because they fear the legal obligations, ect.

start a petition!!! it can't hurt

I worked in a grocery store and the only people allowed to take pictures were the people from our district offices. You're not allowed to take pictures because you might snap a shot of the merchandise. I've never been told exactly WHY. It has something to do with competing stores. They don't want you taking pictures of displays or prices or anything else like that.

Yeah I know. Schools are like that too. We just wanted to film a short scene for a PSA we had to do in Lit. We need to do it in the lunch room. So with a few friends in tow to make it look more realistic, between a lunch period we went down there. They wouldn't let us film, said we weren't aloud to get other students in the film.... There was no one else in there...

I think, a lot of the time, it'd just be better if you'd ask first...? In stores like Hot Topic I've never seen the place being run by an 'adult-adult' in the formal sense of them being both old enough to work and not... part of the store display? Most workers, even adult-age looking ones, usually wear something from the store, have piercings, or dyed streaks in their hair. xD I mean, they're the 'nice' sort of people if you're shopping at a store filled with stuff they clearly like vending.

So, I don't think you would have been kicked out of if you would have gone up and asked something along the lines of 'Hey, we're doing a silly home video, we will try our best not to be annoying or in the way of other customers.' But honestly... why in a store?

Technically, private or not, I don't think it's entirely illegal to even 'snoop' with a camera, if your target is to film merchandise (a different matter if you're after the customers). If you wanted to film the layout of the store and its products and then make a Youtube video with a critique of the store - I think that does have a winnable legal side to it. You can make a critique about copyrighted music, using the music in your video, and its legal, by law. You can make a parody of the music, and that's also legal. A home video recording of a concert? Happens all the time, but they'd still yell at you to put your cameras away. Music is entirely different, there's resell value. But a store? Seriously, its not like you can can take the clothes out of your camera and try them on. =_=

As others have said, there are a whole myriad of other reasons; everything from the store being private property, to you accidentally catching someone else on film (you aren't allowed to film another person without their express permission). Especially if you accidentally film a child, there can be huge legal repurcussions if you film or take pictures of a kid without their parents' permission.

Not to mention the fact that you are distracting other customers, even if that isn't your intent. As soon as you pull a camera out, a lot of people get edgy and uncomfortable. It's just bad for business.

I got scolded for posing with a Victoria Secret mannequin for a photo. At the time it seemed pretty stupid, but there is sense in it.