First reply? But yeah, I do find that rather weird. I understand the rule applying to celebrities but unless I'm posting someone's face or someone pic for compromising reasons, I don't see the need for this being applied to the general populace. Or else, I'll have to carry around a megaphone and shout at people to stay away from the scenery I'm taking a picture of. Either they shoo away or I sic a Gundam at them.
I'd agree, thats quite bizzare :/ I can understand the concept of the rule but it seems a little odd to think that some random person that just happens to be in a photo you take of a street scene could so you over it. Its pretty laughable that a law like that can even be enforced.
Funny how smoe people don't want to get such free advertisements of their faces on blogs ^^ BUt in any case, asians are typically much more shy with photos. Try standing near a busy street with people and take a shot. Most of them will avoid being taken. Or they could always buy a couple of Stormtrooper helmets to cover their faces ^^;
I'd have to agree that it might be useful for entertainers or celebrities and the likes...but other than that I don't think it should apply to normal people. It just doesn't make sense.
The problem with restricting protection to celebrities is: who qualifies? I'd certainly hate to have my photo all over the internet just 'cause I was, e.g., injured by Hirano Aya falling off the stage.
Actually they have something like that in Hong Kong as well. When you see the news on TV, there are blurred out faces of people in the crowd, but it's not really consistent. Even so, it must really suck to blog in Japan, unless you have face detection software which can automatically block out the faces for you...otherwise its a whole lot of RSI pain.
i have a friend who was taking photos, for an art project, in the street. as far as i know there are no laws like Japan's in the UK, but my friend happened to take a photo of a man who believed that a photograph took away part of your soul. this man was not happy ^^ but what is he supposed to do? delete it?
omg, i'd like to say WTF now! There are already fansites that has faces from jap actors/actresses and even singers. I can't imagine putting a blur on his/her fave >_
For celebrities, it's a good thing--I guess it helps regulate the distribution of images where the visual appeal of actors and j-idols is what makes them sell. For other people? It's kinda silly given how packed urban Japan is. It's just not practical and almost impossible to avoid catching "innocent bystanders" in a photo shot.
so that's why some japanese blogs use the laughing man on some of their pictures at first i thought to protect the profiles of the people in the picture and i guess i was partly right ^^ Japan Portrait Rights is not that evil 'coz it's designed to protect the interest and the investment of our friends in the entertainment industry but the idea of this affecting ordinary folks is plain preposterous. but if you look at it, it shows that the japanese highly respects laws imposed by the government no matter how preposterous it is.
If it's not a real law, and you're not a Japanese citizen (or your blog/website is outside Japan), what can they do? (cause in fact I have a picture of Hirano Aya on my blog somewhere :D funny you used that example ;p) I've always wondered why they did it, and had an idea that there would be something like this. I can understand it when it is used for witness protection, but for people in the entertainment industry? So only the good shots are allowed to be published? :P
Ugh, touchy subject I guess in Japan. For celebrities its fine, because they have that copyright issue. But for normal people to use this law, I find that it is kinda ridiculous. I mean if you are a police that picture compromise your identity (as an example), fine, but it's quite ludicrous that people it is considered an offence to take picture of people in street and event's.
Assuming that I took a picture of a Gundam from someone's blog without permission, will it be considered not an offense if I blurred the face of the Gundam? Or is the rights does not cover inanimate, non-living objects?
In reference to my post below (forgot to add this), isn't a Gundam considered a sorta celebrity because it's famous everywhere on earth?
Oh! Never heard about this. I always run into blurred faces on tv when a interviewee is trying to protect his or her identity, but I never knew their could be a lawsuit behind the use of someone's portrait without permission.
In Singapore, we don't blank out faces but car registration plate numbers. This is to protect the privacy of the car owner as you can look up a person's personal information i.e. residential address by checking with the registry of vehicles (information is legally available for a fee)
Huh, I simply thought the face-blurring was out of consideration to help preserve identities and such on blogs (wouldn't wanna be known as an otaku in Japan, right?). I kinda understand the whole thing, but rather than allowing *insert person/party* to sue you, I think they could just have you remove/censor the picture if it's requested. This way, we have both good sides and everybody wins.
And there was me thinking that all cameras were fitted with special facial blurring devices that blur peoples faces when necessary. There goes my idea *sigh* Or is it perhaps that our cyborg brains have been hacked and that infact the photo is not blurred but due to the hacking in our brains we are thus unable to view the faces of those in the photos? (no i haven't been watching too much ghost int he shell xP)
People are getting more and more paranoid those days. Fear of perverts, paparazzi (since when you became one Danny?), stalkers and other unwanted fans... I wonder what would happen if: - You asked everyone if they wanted to be on your pic before taking it (with a megaphone for more effect); - You photoshopped like crazy (nah, forget this idea) - If animals would protest like that too... Of course if you write bad things about otakus or spy on them individually... Needless to say all those hypotheses are completely absurd. Humans are crazy living beings.
Blimey - thats a bit mental... Sounds like more of an American thing - yknow - "sue everyone"! I always wondered why sites like moeyo always covered up peoples faces. Hope none of the people i saw on my travels see the photobook i made of my tokyo pictures.... ^^;
I usually blur or censor my face if I think I look goofy :P as for the rule I'm glad I know now! :O
coming from a place where censorhip laws are still firmly entrenched in the 80's mindset(thanks to some old oba-sans and oji-sans o_0) i must say that censorship in any form really sucks.
Yea this is pretty bad. Imagine you just want to take a pic of the city and streets, etc....Then anyone in the pic can sue you. This just sounds pretty ridiculous
Hangmen13, Good point!
This is one of the more stupid things I have ever heard. (not really but i'm using the line.) I say yes, to portrait rights if your using it for commercial reasons that you gain profit from in material or non material form. But no to portrait rights if your just posting pictures/taking pictures unless the person in question requests to have it removed from your blog.
Portrait Rights... Balogna! I'm guessing there is no such thing as public domain or public property in Japan. In the U.S., as long as you are on public property, everything is pretty much open game. You can even take pictures on private property that is open to the public. You can't on the other hand take pictures of people and certain places that have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This includes places that are not easily seen by the general public and some military installations and operations. Publishing on the other hand — you can publish almost anything for the sake of news. You cannot publish private facts or anything that defames a certain place or subject. You also can't publish pictures of a specific subject or place if you plan to make money off them. For example, advertising. There is a whole lot more to this, but I just can't type and explain everything and I'm not an expert. I'm just going off on what I read and heard off books, news sites and my design teachers (one who happens to be a professional photographer). Or, you can just be like me and have a release form on you at all times. Here's a pretty interesting peice of paper I have with me at all times (does not pertain to people outside of the U.S.): http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf
I suppose there are no "portrait rights" outside Japan, because there is a body of case law that denies it, at least in the West. If a person is in a public space, they don't have the rights to photos taken of them. Conversely if you are on private land then there can be no overriding public interest unless you are in the middle of committing, say, a triple murder. Whereas in China anything can be taken care of with a bribe...
Good to know about this kind of thing before hand. Might be heading to Osaka soon and plan to take many pics, I don't know if people that I take will come all the way to sue me in the U.S., never really heard of something like that here.
Just to stir the pot a little, how do you square that with all those privacy paranoiacs in the West who bitch about Big Brother setting up closed-circuit cameras in public spaces? Two sides of the same coin! I personally think that people in public are "in public" and not entitled to complain when they're SEEN (or photographed) in public, but that's JM(NS)HO.
i saw ur new posts now n the pics are not sensored..or u do it for the jap version only? not really important oredi?
"Faceless community on the net" Hahaha... That's gold.
Japanese are shy people afterall... And LOL @ Blurry faced disease~
The way to stop this Is to stop publishing pictures of celebrities and politicians Denigh them the publicity until they change the law
