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