Neighbourhood Watch 2.0?
October 5, 2007 12:56 PM   Subscribe

Frustrated with perceived inefficacy of local law enforcement and government, residents of Calle de la Montera have started posting video of criminal behaviour (mainly prostitution) on their street to YouTube. The Data Protection Agency (tasked with privacy enforcement) is not amused (in Spanish; machine translation), but the neighbourhood watch group maintains it is not breaking the law (m.t.).
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (14 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Calle de la Montera has always been a red-light district. It's universally known, so there should be no reason why the neighbors are suddenly up in arms.
posted by jsavimbi at 1:01 PM on October 5, 2007


"You know, the courts may not be working any more, but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done."
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:18 PM on October 5, 2007


Prostitution is pretty open in Madrid. I stayed at a pension on Calle de la Montera in July and it was jam packed with hookers. The cops typically don't do anything unless there is trouble. Things are pretty liberal in Madrid. Public nudity is even legal.
posted by JJ86 at 1:34 PM on October 5, 2007


pix pls
posted by Smedleyman at 1:36 PM on October 5, 2007


Calle de la Montera has always been a red-light district. It's universally known, so there should be no reason why the neighbors are suddenly up in arms.

Isn't that like saying, "Oh, you knew that was a crack house when you moved in. Get used to it."

If you don't want to enforce a law, don't ignore it. Change the law.

Is prostitution legal in Spain? If not, these people seem to have a valid claim. I know that Europe privacy laws are greater (and free speech protections less powerful), so I'm not sure whether or not they broke the law, but common sense says no.

Anything you do on the street should be public domain, imo. I'm not sure if I can think of a valid exception ... Say, for instance, your pants (and underwear) accidentally fell down on the street and someone videotaped your cock ... Yeah, that's public domain ...
posted by mrgrimm at 1:52 PM on October 5, 2007


no, that's pubic domain
posted by pyramid termite at 2:05 PM on October 5, 2007


As long as the residents are only filming activities on public streets then I don't think they are breaking any data protection or privacy laws. I don't see there's any difference between that and the CCTV cameras that they'd been promised would be installed but never were.
posted by electricinca at 2:33 PM on October 5, 2007


mrgrimm: Prostitution *is* legal in Spain.

IANAL, but I am Spanish, and I remember a lawyer friend explaining to me that in Spain proxenetism (inducing others to prostitution, ie being a pimp) is a crime, but that in absence of coercion, having sex for money (either paying or receiving it) is not illegal. And, Spain being a liberal democracy, anything not expressly forbidden is legal.

As to the "anything you do in public should be public domain", I am in two minds about that. For now I am probably more with fandango_matt on that subject.
posted by kandinski at 7:07 PM on October 5, 2007


So, neither of you will mind if someone follows you around all day and videotapes everything you do while you're out in public.

Public spaces, FM. If you don't like it, stay indoors.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:08 PM on October 5, 2007


fandango_matt: So, neither of you will mind if someone follows you around all day and videotapes everything you do while you're out in public. Good to know.

Of course, if you go too far the other way taking a picture of a crowd would require the individual, personal consent of everyone in it.

My take - anything you do in public is public domain, however following someone around with a camera all of the time constitutes illegal harrassment.
posted by Mitrovarr at 7:33 PM on October 5, 2007


So, neither of you will mind if someone follows you around all day and videotapes everything you do while you're out in public. Good to know.

Ah, you've been to London then.
posted by ArkhanJG at 11:47 PM on October 5, 2007


To answer fandango_matt yeah I would mind if someone followed me around all day and videotaped everything I did while I was out in public, but as I live in a city centre in the UK the country with highest number of CCTV cameras per capita that pretty much happens everytime I step out my front door. And I mind it a helluva lot.
posted by electricinca at 4:04 PM on October 6, 2007


So, neither of you will mind if someone follows you around all day and videotapes everything you do while you're out in public. Good to know.

I would not mind. It doesn't seem feasible, except for celebrities, in which case it's very much the situation you describe.

I do not think that any photos/video captured of individuals should be able to be sold for profit or used in a for-profit project without consent of the subject, but I'm likely in the minority there.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:09 AM on October 8, 2007


And interesting to learn about prostitution in Spain. Seems like an enlightened stance.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:10 AM on October 8, 2007


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