And of course nobody in this discussion has said anything against photographing officials and news-worthy events.
"You should not publish photos/videos of private individuals without consent or a very good reason" and "you should be able to freely document police activity" do not contradict each other.
Is that true? There are many level of exercise of political, social, and economic power that happen in the commons. The camera is a primary tool of defense against injustice in this area.
Restrictions (especially with the force of law, but also social pressures) of the basic and deeply human capacity to capture photons and vibrations, and to make depictions of the results of that capture, are invariably used by the more powerful against the less powerful. eg: cops playing "copyrighted" material to prevent posting to youtube.
Much safer and fairer is to just give ourselves the same rights we might imagine are afforded to an alien, 4 light years away, looking through an extremely powerful telescope. Do you suggest that earth laws extend to this alien? Is she prohibited from posting the activities she can see of ours through her telescope?
